First time dealing with sweet itch...

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Missfleurie

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Hi,

I've recently discovered my mare has sweet itch, which is something I've not dealt with before.

She doesn't have it too badly, just patchy bits on her bum, by her withers and she's lost hair beneath her eyes (it's worst there, but she is wearing a fly mask now).

Just looking for some advice or recommendations on what to buy for her.

Thanks xx
 
My boy had chronic sweet itch when I bought him. Well controlled but he still itched and threw himself about and had lesions etc :( He was covered head to toe in rugs 24/7.

I changed his diet dramatically. Off the Alfa A, onto a handful of Fast Fibre, Pro Balance, Linseed, salt, cider vinegar, turmeric and a huge dose of brewers yeast (75gms in total) He stays in over night, mainly because he gets fat on fresh air! but also because lush or too much grass makes his itchy. He gets a mixture of Benzyl Benzoate and Avon Skin So Soft (75:25) twice a day usually on his mane, tail and midline, and a blitz with fly spray before he goes out. It took about 6 weeks of the improved diet for him to start showing improvements, but they were dramatic :)

He is completely symptom free. I would have no issue if I was unscrupulous, as selling him as not having sweet itch. He recently had to stay at horsepital, he was supposed to be there for at least 3 days. He got sent home after 48 hours as he was starting to itch to the point he was bleeding again :( And that was stabled with a full grill up.

Back home hes stopped again within 48 hours :) Sweet itch is a horrible, horrible disease but you can make life so much better for them.
 
Take a look via the "search" facility into the archives on this forum, there's loads on here about it from myself and others so I won't duplicate it here, other than to give the best advice is that the FIRST/PRIORITY thing you can do NOW is to get a sweet itch rug for your mare to stop the midges biting her in the first place.

Depending on your preference, best brands are: Rambo Sweet Itch hoody (not the cheapest but the best IME), closely followed by Premier Equine (cheaper - but their sizings are a bit bizarre and I've recently had to send a rug back which was far too big - annoying coz I ordered the correct size which mine always has :(); or the Boett (go on over the head which not every horse can deal with).

Stopping the midges biting in the first place is what you need to aim to do.

Then you need to look at where your horse is turned out: best place would be a high, windy field with plenty of breeze. Worst grazing is low-lying, near overhanging trees and standing water or streams where midges congregate.

Then look at diet: think "sweet" itch. So avoid as far as you can mollasses, too much sweet grass. Also avoid garlic as it stimulates the immune system which isn't what you want as sweet itch is an immuno-suppressant over-reaction basically. Beware a lot of the "fly supplements" on sale as they've actually got garlic in a lot of them.

I feed mine: Brewers Yeast (scoopfull, 2 X daily), Micronised Linseed, Cider Vinegar (dessert spoon in feed daily), plus Clivers (sticky stuff that grows in hedges). Much much cheaper than proprietory "cures/fixes" for sweet itch!

Good luck with yours. Have a look on here, there's a wealth of knowledge!

Sweet itch IS manageable. If you PM me, I'll e-mail you some pictures of my trad-cob with a lovely full mane and tail!!

Sorry (edited) meant to say that "Killitch" is a good thing to buy to put on any problem itchy areas like under the eyes. Its basically Benzyl Benzoate which you can apparently buy more cheaply at on-line pharmacies. Or I use Sudocrem on mine: he's always a bit itchy under his eyes and it serves both as a salve and good for keeping the sun off him - oh the joys of pink-skinned horses with white hair in the summer months!

Or you could try Neem Oil - if yours isn't a dark coloured horse then be aware that it could stain, but it will keep the midges & flies off plus is a general healing salve as well (it stinks so be prepared!). Don't forget to patch-test anything you put on first tho'!!
 
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Hi, I can totally sympathise as I have a mini with SI and I have posted on here many, many times for advice.

I keep mine in a 'high risk' area so plenty of woods & trees, in a valley with a river running through and a few boggy areas so he is in the worst possible place for sweet itch unfortunately and although he has a boett & mask he still itches through these.

I have been getting on really well with Killitch but when I moved from daily application to every few days he started to rub some patches which means I can't use the Killitch for now as it can't be applied on broken skin. To make things worse his ears have got so bad he won't keep a mask on as he is constantly itching his ears which rips the ear off the mask and he then gets the mask off or it comes off. He has been through a boett mask and a shires full face mask in the last 2 weeks.

I've started using a neem based fly gel which has worked absolute wonders, it clears up his sore patches almost overnight, has reduced the itching wherever applied and in only 2 days he's gone from refusing to come in in case I touch his ears to standing whilst I apply the gel to both the inside & outside of his ears which I have never been able to so before.

My routine once he is healed will be to apply the Killitch daily and use the neem gel on his itchy areas and I'm hoping this should clear him completely again. That should enable me to only rug & mask him from dusk to dawn and hopefully keep him naked during the day on breezy days.

I've also read on here that weekly washing is hugely beneficial and also to reapply whatever you use after sweating or washing.

Feedwise I was using Feedmark Equidermis Plus but I'm not sure it did anything and it's expensive, so I've now started adding plain brewers yeast to his feed as FrankieCob and MiJods have said above.

I think it's all trial & error but good luck as it's such an awful thing to deal with.
 
I feed turmeric. Not sure if it does anything or not, but its cheap so I carry on :lol: Brewers Yeast did definitely make a difference, especially when I upped the dosage right up :)
 
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