Feel like a failure and have let horsey down!

m3gan

m3gan

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My new horse has rubbed off most of his face , I have tried so hard to stop him itching. I have bought a total of Four different fly masks to enable me to find the right one, he wears a sweet itch Rambo hoody which I bought and i have been using sudocrem and fly repellent, as he has been so itchy. Last week he rubbed off aload of his face so i started using Stopitch, then on Saturday he has rubbed his blaze raw. I feel so bad for him and am at my wits end to know what else I can do for him. I feel a complete failure . When I bought him his owner said he had not ever suffered with sweetitch. I am keeping him along way from where he was kept before (from the North to the S.West) and the field he is in borders a small stream . I am considering moving him to a different yard if if it will help him. Apologies for the length of this post I welcome any help, advice etc. BTW horsey is an Arab.
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Sounds like he's sensitive to something. One of ours developed a random face rash and rubbed it raw a few weeks ago. we hibiscrubed every day and did copious amounts of fly reppelennt, wound cream etc and it cleared in a few weeks. Vet never did figure out what it is. a calf had it too weird.

If its just his face does sound like a contact thing. Maybe youll have to try moving him

Your not a failier, your trying!
 
have you had the vet out? i'm sure there are injections they can give, or at least painkillers. if it's as bad as you say, i would do that.
the stream won't help if there are midges breeding in it, you really need a windswept field with no water nearby if he's suffering that badly and nothing's helping.
hope you manage to contain his itching.
 
i havent called the vet out as i don't think it is painful because he is quite happy for me to put the stopitch cream on him which doesn't seem to bother him. If it gets worse i will definitily get the vets advice.
 
Try Camrosa, I swear by it and it's really good for allergies, sunburn, harvest mites (could it be mites?) and sweet itch, so it could help. It's not too expenssive and if it does work you will see an improvement within 24 hours.
 
My friend's welsh D has got really bad sweet itch.
She has gone through god knows how many creams/rugs/fly masks.
He itches his head/neck/tail/chest/stomach/sheath (which is 3 times the size it should be), poor bugger really suffers. He humps the ground to itch his sheath.

Last September she had blood tests done, he's allergic to almost every type of tree/fly/food going.
He then went on a course of injections for 7 months and there was still no improvements, she can only feed him select food and horse hage.

They have now put him on steroids (not the muscle builder ones)!
His sheath is normal, with no swelling or sore bits, his mane is starting to grow and he has hair on his face!

If you want I can find out what the steroids are called?
They can be used for cats and dogs too, I think you get 1000 in a pot and he was having 50 a day but now its been cut back to 25.

Its the only thing thats worked for him, its so hard to see them suffer isn't it.

xx
 
If the problem starts to affect his body as well to such an extent as you described i would probably have no alternative but to use steroids , but for the moment i would like to try all other alternatives before i went down that route! Thankyou anyway for your advice.
 
I did wonder if it he was allergic to a fly repellent i had used which was Stop-it-all so i have Stopped-it-all!! i also spoke to the lady who makes the product and she had never heard of any one who had a problem with the product, as it widely advocated for use in sweetitch prevention and treatment. But i wonder if he was allergic to it. I am trying to find out if i can find any livery yards near which do not have water by them as well!
 
Why dont you try the blood tests? It would put your mind at rest.
When I worked in the horse shop someone was telling me that she thought her horse had sweet itch, she had tests done and he was allergic to her grass
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She had to have all her land dug up and re seeded with a different grass seed
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Im not saying thats your problem but the blood tests are good. Oh my friends sec D is allergic to Olive trees
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Cos theres so many of them in Cornwall
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I would get the vet out. It sounds like he is allergic to something. Is he in a field full of buttercups?

It is just his blaze? If it is just his blaze where the skin is pink, could it be sunburn?

I would bathe it in salt water in case it is a reaction to something and call the vet. Have his fly masks been washed in a bio washing powder?

You havent let him down, you have done everything you can. My horse had something similar and he rubbed his cheeks raw, luckily it settled down with savlon and extra fly spray.

if this has been going on for more than a week again call the vet.

x
 
No he isn't in a field of buttercups and i don't think it is sunburn becasuse he has had sudacream on his nose to protect him from sunburn and the flymask covers his nose, which hasn't been washed in biowashing powder either! I know my friend had allergy tests done on her horse and it turned out he was allergic to timothy grass, not alot you can do about that !I can understand thiugh that it would be useful to rule out certain things so i will see how it goes with my boy and if it dosen't improve i will get the vet out. Thing is i don't have a huge faith in vets with something like this, if it becomes infected, sure i will call them out ASAP but often they don't have an answer, and will just resort to steroids, unless you are really lucky and have a very good experienced horse vet
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my new cob as sweetitch, i use benzyl benzonate, also i feed him a supplement from feedmark for skin and coat,he as hardly been itching, he hasn't even had to have his fly rug on.
 
If it is midge bites he is allergic to, try supplementing his feed with garlic to help keep mideges at bay. You can feed garlic capsules that do not stink so much but still come out the pores in the same way or do what my sister has done and buy garlic granules which stink to high heaven! Def won't do harm, anyway, i think garlic is in general pretty good for the immune system anyway. My vets gave me some fuciderm ointment to put on my horses muzzle/nose etc when he suffered really bad buttercup rash or sunburn last year I think it was (can't have been sun, we didn't have any!). it was great and cleared up the soreness in no time. I use it now for any sore bits he gets as he gets dermatitis on his legs too.

Would definitely refer to your vet, they may want to take a skin scraping in case is a mite problem.
 
I understand how you feel about vets. We have a similar problem in our area, gererally they come in with their eyes wide shut, diagnose straight away then go. It may be worth trying blood tests tho. One of our horses is sensitive to sunlight and st johns wort. A friend of mine had a horse allergic to plums (there was a plum tree in the field). Sorry not much help but good luck!
 
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