Extreme itching help

LaurenBay

LaurenBay

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Hello all, long time no speak! I hope everyone is doing well? I’ve turned into a bit of a lurker on here.

Very exciting news, I have returned to Horses full time with a full loan. The Horse I have been sharing for 3 years came up for full loan and I jumped at the chance. She’s a beautiful 15.1 Welsh x mare. I adore her!!

Last winter she became super itchy, vets were heavily involved but no diagnosis, she had skin scrapes, various lotions and potions, supplements, steroids, lice treatment. Then went down the allergy route of removing things and re introducing, nothing worked. The itching was gone extreme, she had loads of open wounds because she would not stop rubbing. Then the warmer weather came and with it the itching stopped. She does have mild sweet itch but it’s easy to control, so this spring and summer she was easily managed and we had a relatively itch free summer. The. Last week the extreme itchiness is back, at the time she was still living out. Nothing else has changed, the only change is her winter coat coming through. That’s it. Any ideas? Why is it only autumn and winter she is like this? She’s also on a different yard to last year (moved in case it was the environment)

Will speak to vet also, but good to hear your thoughts also.

X
 
Sorry should have said. She’s fed on a balancer with a hand full of chopped oat straw, black salt, brewers yeast and linseed oil.
 
Have you started on a new hay batch? Could it be hay mites?

Recently I found some hay, took a few trial bales, and although it was lovely lovely hay, it was loaded with hay mites. I wouldn’t have noticed them if I hadn’t rummaged through the hay, shook it out etc, and they blew onto me itching my neck, face and arms. The itching is horrid relentless, and I didn’t want the horses to have issues with these mites. I had raised red bumps from their bites.

If I had just thrown flakes at them or fed ad lib round bales from this supplier, I likely wouldn’t realise they were being harrassed by hay mites.

The way to test the hay for mites is grab a random inner bale flake/clump of hay and shake over black plastic or card. The mites are creamy/light coloured, so show up on black. They look like bits of dust moving by themselves, they’re that small. A magnifying glass helps I.D. the type of mite properly.

As you said it’s always autumn/winter when she suffers, I wondered if it was a seasonal feed change of being off grazing 24/7 and on more hay at that time?

Or consider bedding as some types may aggravate sensitive skin horses.
 
Did you try different ones as some work better than others. I think there is a fb group about this subject but i cant recall what it is x
 
Flowerofthefen said:
Do you rug her? The type of washing powder on the rugs if you do rug?
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Yes she is rugged all year round (because she suffers with SI in warmer months) all washed in the same things, she’s not itchy much in the summer. Seems to be the winter coat change which causes the extreme itchiness.

Vet is out next Friday to inject hocks anyway so will ask them again, but we couldn’t get to the bottom of it last year either :(
 
LaurenBay said:
Hello all, long time no speak! I hope everyone is doing well? I’ve turned into a bit of a lurker on here.

Very exciting news, I have returned to Horses full time with a full loan. The Horse I have been sharing for 3 years came up for full loan and I jumped at the chance. She’s a beautiful 15.1 Welsh x mare. I adore her!!

Last winter she became super itchy, vets were heavily involved but no diagnosis, she had skin scrapes, various lotions and potions, supplements, steroids, lice treatment. Then went down the allergy route of removing things and re introducing, nothing worked. The itching was gone extreme, she had loads of open wounds because she would not stop rubbing. Then the warmer weather came and with it the itching stopped. She does have mild sweet itch but it’s easy to control, so this spring and summer she was easily managed and we had a relatively itch free summer. The. Last week the extreme itchiness is back, at the time she was still living out. Nothing else has changed, the only change is her winter coat coming through. That’s it. Any ideas? Why is it only autumn and winter she is like this? She’s also on a different yard to last year (moved in case it was the environment)

Will speak to vet also, but good to hear your thoughts also.

X
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About 40 years ago (so hopefully vets have got a bit more ammunition now!) knew a mare (also Welsh x, coincidentally) sounds remarkably similar, and their vets threw the kitchen sink at it. Finally concluded some staphylococcus infection, but never got ‘on top’ of things, merely managed it by clipping regularly all autumn / winter, putting a fresh cotton stable sheet every day under whatever rugs mare was wearing (she had loads of these, in and out the washing machine), clean cotton saddle cloth, and try to get her ridden every day so the covers were off and oxygen got to the skin and any sores.
she did seem to appreciate the regime, and that was the best they achieved - start clipping at first sign, her coat grew back fast where any sores had most recently been, and always the original colour, so in summer she looked lovely, you would not know there was an issue. Definitely not contagious. Good luck.
 
Thank you, she is being clipped this week. She was clipped through summer and also hogged. I do try to let her skin breathe and where possible I will tie her up with a net and take the rug off and let her have some naked time! She did have bibs and things under her rugs last year. I also do regular (2-4 times a week) hot towels with lavender wash (she was fine with this over the summer)
 
Dermatophilis condolences? Ie rain scald/ sweat scald.
My welsh used to get it quite badly. He was clipped out in winter which was the best way of controlling it.
Vet told me to bath in dilute hibiscrub (rubbed well in with soft brush) to kill off the bacteria. Any nasty sores treat with flamazine.
 
LaurenBay said:
Sorry should have said. She’s fed on a balancer with a hand full of chopped oat straw, black salt, brewers yeast and linseed oil.
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Hello again!

Cut out the linseed oil. I was feeding my cob mare a balancer with linseed when she started itching one November. I increased the linseed as it's 'good for skin'. The itching got worse! Several other things happened including passersby feeding her but feeding her Agrobs Weisencobs VitE, Aloe Vera marigold &cleavers, and milk thistle, while ensuring she has no access to anything sweet, including rose-hips and no linseed, I think we've finally got on top of it.
 
AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
Has her liver been tested? I have known that to cause extreme itchyness. Could be the switch to less grass/more hay affects something
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No not tested, I will speak to vet about that though.

spotty_pony2 said:
is she in the stable more? could it be the bedding?
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It started before she came in, she was still living out when this started a week and half ago. Last year we did remove all bedding and left her on rubber matting only, this was to rule out allergies to the bed. But nothing changed and she’s no worse on it so she’s back to having a nice big bed.

lamlyn2012 said:
Dermatophilis condolences? Ie rain scald/ sweat scald.
My welsh used to get it quite badly. He was clipped out in winter which was the best way of controlling it.
Vet told me to bath in dilute hibiscrub (rubbed well in with soft brush) to kill off the bacteria. Any nasty sores treat with flamazine.
Click to expand...

This is interesting, she has one patch that looks like rain scald, but she’s never wet, she has good quality turn outs on and never out naked due to her SI, she’s either in a fly rug, no fill sheet if it rains and a thicker rug at night. She doesn’t get overly sweaty. But it does look like rain scald, vet took skin scrapes but said both were negative.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Hello again!

Cut out the linseed oil. I was feeding my cob mare a balancer with linseed when she started itching one November. I increased the linseed as it's 'good for skin'. The itching got worse! Several other things happened including passersby feeding her but feeding her Agrobs Weisencobs VitE, Aloe Vera marigold &cleavers, and milk thistle, while ensuring she has no access to anything sweet, including rose-hips and no linseed, I think we've finally got on top of it.
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Will give it a go, she’s very almost at the end of the oil bottle. I put her on it as she gets quite dandruffy and the linseed helps with that. But I’d rather dandruff then her be miserable itching
 
LaurenBay said:
Will give it a go, she’s very almost at the end of the oil bottle. I put her on it as she gets quite dandruffy and the linseed helps with that. But I’d rather dandruff then her be miserable itching
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After trying many treatments we have found that Sudacrem seems to work best to soothe the itching and stop her biting at herself. The problem is mainly on her back legs but also around her teats/upper inner thighs and a bit on her face.
 
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