Coping with sweet itch

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fairylesley

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Hi, I'm about to purchase a beautiful horse that has sweet itch. I just wondered if anyone out there can give me some tips on how to cope with owning a horse with this condition. Lots of advice would be greatly appreciated thank you :0)
 
I didn't realise my boy had it when I bought him so its a case of trying to prevent him starting to itch by keeping him covered in a good quality sweet itch/ fly rug with good coverage.
Have more than 1 so one can be washed whilst the other is on. I have Snuggy hood sweet itch and premier equine rugs which are good but expensive. I also have a mark Todd airstream combo which has a belly flap and good neck coverage which I'd recommend too
This year we've had minimal itching but he now lives on higher ground in a very open field which seems to help. This field doesn't have a stream or pond in - which can attract midges- so far so good!
Good luck with your new purchase!
 
fairylesley said:
Hi, I'm about to purchase a beautiful horse that has sweet itch. I just wondered if anyone out there can give me some tips on how to cope with owning a horse with this condition. Lots of advice would be greatly appreciated thank you :0)
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I can't believe no-one has replied to you, I am going to look to see if you got it reposted on veterinary.
 
Wow we both replied to you at the same time. I would find out what the people you are buying him from do to control it - if it is under control. If it isn't I would suggest you don't buy it. There's loads of horses out there without it. I have 1 with it and it is a nightmare - rugs, masks, lotions, potions, additives in feed, full electric fence to stop him rubbing and you need seriously strong stables in case they rub on the walls. Sorry to be blunt but it is a nightmare.
 
Apart from rugs, invest in a good quality supplement that will boost his immune system. That is vitally important for these guys. The more you can boost it - and keep it boosted, the easier the season should be.

Washing with a good coal tar based shampoo regularly through the season helps. Feeding herbs like Neem as well as applying it topically help too.

It can be managed - it can also be a nightmare - but management is half the battle. :)
 
Like CF says ,its all in the mangement,sweet itch rugs on before the start of the midge season,I usually start rugging end of Feb and they dont come off until the end of Oct,dont feed garlic as garlic increases the immune system and a sweetitch horse already has an over active immune system,I find feeding brewers yeast helps.Also watch the amount of sugar that you feed.its not called sweetitch for nothing,washing manes and tails regularly,applying lots of greasy midge cream before riding,keep away from water,ponds etc,over hanging trees,places where midges like to hang out.Sweetitch if not controlled does get worse with age and although my mare is a horse of a lifetime,if i'd have known when i bought her(she was 2) i would have walked away. x
 
Thank you for advice, I'm a little worried now. He's so lovely and I'm prepared to put the time in and preventions. The owners said that this year has been really minimal for midges/flies but he's always rugged up and has cream/spray on etc when turned out. What supplements would people reccomend feeding?? :0)
 
pintobelle said:
Like CF says ,its all in the mangement,sweet itch rugs on before the start of the midge season,I usually start rugging end of Feb and they dont come off until the end of Oct,dont feed garlic as garlic increases the immune system and a sweetitch horse already has an over active immune system,I find feeding brewers yeast helps.Also watch the amount of sugar that you feed.its not called sweetitch for nothing,washing manes and tails regularly,applying lots of greasy midge cream before riding,keep away from water,ponds etc,over hanging trees,places where midges like to hang out.Sweetitch if not controlled does get worse with age and although my mare is a horse of a lifetime,if i'd have known when i bought her(she was 2) i would have walked away. x
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Sorry pintobelle - You are right about Garlic in that you shouldn't feed it (to any horses actually...) But it is a gut irritant (and can contribute to Heinz Anaemia) which is the last thing you want with SI sufferers.

The immune system NEEDS boosting as it is over reacting because it feels threatened - a bit like hay fever sufferers....

Neem oil and herb (fed) can also help....
 
fairylesley said:
Thank you for advice, I'm a little worried now. He's so lovely and I'm prepared to put the time in and preventions. The owners said that this year has been really minimal for midges/flies but he's always rugged up and has cream/spray on etc when turned out. What supplements would people reccomend feeding?? :0)
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Over the years, I have tried everything - herbs, lotions, potions etc.... The trick I have found is not to load their system - think detox etc... - yup - one year I ended up with mine looking a bit like a pug / puffed up quilt! - all I did was wash him... Totally my fault - it was an over reaction and an accumulation of a variety of stuff at the time - and they were living out 24 / 7..... (i tried too hard...)

Please do not let it worry you too much - it can be managed - truly...

I recently put my guy onto Alltechs Life Force. (My guy has been suffering for years) I started my SI campaign a little too late (oops) It hasn't "cured" it, but it most certainly has helped him. The last time I washed him, his skin was most certainly much improved in quality. Scurf much less and no swelling to speak of.

Realistically, it will take longer than the few months he has been on it. I am going to keep him on it now through the winter and hopefully he'll be even better next season. :)
 
Crazy Friesian said:
Sorry pintobelle - You are right about Garlic in that you shouldn't feed it (to any horses actually...) But it is a gut irritant (and can contribute to Heinz Anaemia) which is the last thing you want with SI sufferers.

The immune system NEEDS boosting as it is over reacting because it feels threatened - a bit like hay fever sufferers....

Neem oil and herb (fed) can also help....
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:) x
 
Sorry to hijack but I have an eleven year old Welsh D that I bought as rising six with no signs of SI until last year when he rubbed his tail off and his neck had raw patches. I bought a fly sheet and good quality fly repellent. This year I started early and he is much better, he still has a tail and full mane.:D Unfortunately we have a small river running through his field so can't avoid the water. Would you class this as SI as it doesn't seem as severe as some people have described with their horses and he has only developed it in the last year? I have also found sudocrem fantastic, I rub it on his tail and at the base of his mane and that seems to stop him rubbing.
 
Your more than welcome to join in I need all the advice I can get! I too have a small stream running through the field and so I'm going to have to really keep on top of prevention/repellent. My friend has recommended pine tar in the mane and tail to stop itching. Fortunately the horse I should be getting is black so won't look horrendous! Willing to try anything! X
 
Location is very important. Having a stream nearby will likely make life alot harder for your horse. You may find that his sweet itch gets worse/harder to deal with. A horse can go from being a mild sufferer to a severe sufferer depending on the location of the field. My friend has a pony that show's no signs in one field and severe signs in another. My own horse went from being so bad I was considering PTS, to being relatvely easily managed after a field change.
My horse is in an exposed field with no water sources nearby and few tree's...he is rugged before he starts showing signs. I use a Rambo Sweet Itch Hoody which after 14 years of trying various ones, has proved to be the toughest and best for us. I use electric fencing to keep him away from anything that he could snag his rug on and Coopers Fly Repellent Plus to keep off any midges as much as possible.
I don't feed him anything special.
Good Luck
 
He comes with rugs/masks and I'm going to buy more so I can wash one/wear one. I've read really good reviews on coopers and plan to rug him from feb to October. I've also read up on z-itch has anyone else tried this product? Thanks
 
Thanks for all your advice everyone, owners came to view field last night in the worst weather and although there were flys around my little section A they were surprised there were no midges to be found even by the stream! It is windy in my field so this probably helps. So I'm paying my deposit next week and committing to take him on and ensure I keep on top of his SI. He's got nothing on him this year due to rigging up and spray so I'm going to stick to their routine. So hopefully 'Ralph' will be very happy. Thanks again for help and advice. X
 
I've had a horse with sweet itch 20 years so here's my pennyworth - you need a GOOD QUALITY sweet itch rug to wear most of the time from February until after the first hard frost of the autumn. Also a cheaper one for emergencies when you are repairing rips or washing your best one. You must have two or else you will be stuck when your rug is damaged, and it will be for sure. I like Boett or Premier Equine ones.
I use Aromesse spray and cream to keep midges off when riding and to soothe any rubs, it's expensive but it does work. Also Ruggle-It shampoo, has no nasty chemicals and has neem oil in. Both available only via internet I think. My horse wears no rug in winter because I think it's very important that they get sun and air to their skin sometime!
I feed an anti-inflammatory diet - as well as no sugars, similar to a laminitis diet, no processed oils (nothing with soya or sunflower oil on) as these are inflammatory, and lots of Omega3 oil ( I use Thunderbrook base feed). If you use linseed oil don't be fooled into buying it from a feed merchant's shelf it's a waste of money, it has to be fresh and kept refrigerated you can get it by the gallon from farms that produce it and freeze it.

It's a hard problem to deal with and if untreated gets worse every year - I hope you are paying very little money for this horse! Well done for taking him on.
 
As others have said, location location location is the important thing with a SI horse. Bear in mind that the stress of moving home may well exacerbate the symptoms of the one you are buying....... I've known horses who haven't shown any signs of SI suddenly develop raw patches in a new home, so best to be ready.

Killitch is a good topical application; Benzyl Benzoate is the active ingredient which you'll get much cheaper on-line.

Be ware of putting coal tar stuff in a horse's mane, gosh this is an old remedy: I can remember doing this a long long time ago!!! We used to mix it with sulphur then and it was absolutely vile. I'd urge caution tho' coz the horse could develop a nasty reaction from doing this; for the same reason don't use pig oil & sulphur (which a lot of people on here will recommend) until you've patch tested for 48 hrs first.

Avoid sugar/mollasses (think "sweet" itch). Brewers yeast, micronised linseed, cider vinegar and Clivers (sticky, in hedges) all good supplements. But you need to start BEFORE the SI season develops (about mid-Feb about right).

Rugs: Very best IMO is Rambo Sweet itch hoody. Cannot be bettered by anyone. Serviceable rugs available from Premier Equine. Don't bother with the cheap and cheerfuls, they'll get wrecked within hours and just won't be.

You may need to stable between the hours of dawn and dusk.

Ummm, OP, I don't wish to interfere with your choice of horse, and I'm one of the ones who bought my horse knowing he had sweet itch, BUT........... can I just say that a horse with SI isn't something to take on lightly. I've got my own yard, and live on-site, so its very easy for me to fiddle and faff, and bring mine in/turn out when I need to, and bung rugs on and stuff, BUT if you're working full time, and your horse is turned out for long periods without anyone seeing what he's up to or bringing in when needed etc, it really could be all very difficult. Also you will find that a lot of yards won't accept a horse with sweet itch because they're afraid it will wreck their fencing, so you need to bear this in mind not just now but also the future. It may be a lovely horse, and just what you want, BUT please do sit down and count the cost!!! Sorry!
 
Second mijods and looks like the garlic question has been answered. Brought mine in to ride last night and he has rubbed it RAW in between face mask and top of neck of fly rug so couldnt put bridle on - think it was done on water trough!! AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!
 
Yeah sorry I don't mean to sound like a prophet of doom: but I'm a YO as well as having a horse that's got SI, and in the past when I was in the situation of looking for livery for him, I was turned down flat because of his sweet itch.

Yes it IS possible to manage effectively; mine doesn't even look like he's got it at the moment, BUT its very time-consuming (and expensive TBH) to effectively care for a SI horse. Even if your management is faultless, a bad spring/summer can be a nightmare and one turn-out in midgey conditions if you're on livery and someone forgets to put the SI rug on (like what happened to mine when I put him on loan and the stooopid numpty girl did this:( ), can set you right back and you'll have a helplessly itchy, raw horse in literally hours, rubbing itsself like crazy on anything and everything.
 
Thankfully he'll be at home with me so I can manage it. What a dim girl turning him out without a rug bet you were fuming. Reminds me of an ex boyfriend I went on hol with to India - he got very drunk one night and we had a row. I pulled the covers off him when he fell asleep and then the mosquitoes ate him all night! Woke up to 80 bites on his back hee hee! They didn't like the taste of me! Very naughty of me but he was an idiot! :0)
 
Got up this moring after a day out at Hickstead and yes I was looking for anew SI rug there only to find something had happened, OH was checking him lst night, they are at home within 20 feet of the house, only to find he has got foot through between binding and rug, it was still there when I got up, therefore rug been pulled tight back off neck, leg straps both gone, rug ripped to bits! Other one in washing m/c as we speak - IMHO you need one which goes from head to tail with no breaks, not separate head mask - anyone got one for sale -6'9"?
 
On another thread, everyone was extolling the virtues of Spoton for keeping the flies away. I suspect it would work on midges and help with SI, but I haven't tried it for that as I don't have anything here with SI. It certainly works for flies, though.

We don't have a lot of midges here so I took on an oldie with SI from where she was living next to forestry and was being eaten alive. Well, I thought I didn't have midges! I sold her very cheaply to a young family who dote on her and who lived virtually on the sea shore so there was a happy outcome, but never again.

I also took a mare to a champion stallion I later found out had SI. Thankfully, she came back empty. I did not bother taking advantage of the free return! Frankly, I'd question the ethic of putting a stallion with SI at public stud no matter how many prizes he'd won. A breeder's first duty is to improve the gene pool, not breed more animals prone to disease.
 
Dry Rot said:
I also took a mare to a champion stallion I later found out had SI. Thankfully, she came back empty. I did not bother taking advantage of the free return! Frankly, I'd question the ethic of putting a stallion with SI at public stud no matter how many prizes he'd won. A breeder's first duty is to improve the gene pool, not breed more animals prone to disease.
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I'm not sure there is any inheritance of Sweet itch. I bred my mare when she was 3 years old, she came back from stud in foal and developed sweet itch that same summer. I still have both her and her daughter, the daughter shows no sign of the problem at all...
...a friend of mine bred from her 12 year old mare and the foal developed sweet itch, no sign of it in either parent or grand parents...
...also children with allergic eczema don't tend to have parents with the same problem - does anyone have any scientific input on this?
 
florayG said:
I'm not sure there is any inheritance of Sweet itch. I bred my mare when she was 3 years old, she came back from stud in foal and developed sweet itch that same summer. I still have both her and her daughter, the daughter shows no sign of the problem at all...
...a friend of mine bred from her 12 year old mare and the foal developed sweet itch, no sign of it in either parent or grand parents...
...also children with allergic eczema don't tend to have parents with the same problem - does anyone have any scientific input on this?
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Years ago I had a chat with a geneticist about a similar condition. He replied, "Everything is genetic", explaining that while a condition might not of itself seem to be inherited, the propensity to inherit a vulnerability to a condition most certainly will be!

Being run over by a double decker bus is not inherited, but people who wander around without paying attention to the traffic will be more likely to be involved in accidents -- so to an extent it is genetic as alertness or the lack of it is likely to be inherited!

He then added, "....but I suppose an endocrinologist (sp?) would claim that everything is hormonal...", just to confuse matters!:):):)

As a breeder, I would not want to use any breeding stock where there was an element of suspicion that it wasn't 110% fit and healthy and I don't really care what the experts say.

Edited to say that if certain breeds are more prone to SI than others, this would go a long way to proving a genetic connection. Are they? I don't know.
 
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I think some are but it's also environmental, eg imported icelandics and haflingers tend to I think have a bigger tendency to develop it than their relatives who stay in Iceland or on Austrian mountains. The bugs may be slightly different, or more boggy conditions here or whatever, so while the breed as a whole might not have more cases, maybe there's something there.

My Haffy has always rubbed her tail a bit but this year is the first year she has actually developed sweet itch a bit. She is now boil in the bag hug a hoody girl :-))))

I think if the horse is at home it is manageable but very hard to do at livery unless YO is very supportive. There again, a bit like the Doberman I chose at the rescue instead of the easier to home breeds, I'm glad my girl is with me as I will do all the stuff needed to manage her SI.
 
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