Help - sweet itch hell

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Arabesque Ani

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My arab mare suffers terrably from sweet itch. has ruined two rugs this summer. someone recommended global but had job to get to eat and no difference. am at wits end thinking about next year. help:confused:
 
ok this is what worked best for me, remove any feed with molasses and remove garlic, if you have to feed chaff, hifi light and i also went back to feed basics and bought a naked grain mix in.
then i used benzyl benzoate on the crest and top of the tail. the field is then fenced with electric.
the horse use to be so bad i had to fence of the door frame otherwise he would rub down through the skin layers to the muscle. by changing his diet 90% of the symptoms went.
 
Hiya, I used to have a cob that suffered dreadfully. He was left in a field before I got him with no treatment and was raw and bleeding with various infections. I gradually stopped using all the supplements and ended up buying Benzyl benzoate from the chemists(used to have to order in large quantities which raised a few eyebrows). I used to plaster him in the stuff specially over his mane (hogged) and his tummy which was badly scarred and round his tail. I made sure that I did it after I rode as it was yukky stuff but the flies thought the same. I always made sure that he had access to a field shelter so he could get away and he stayed really well . He used to have the odd rub and catch me out but he wouldnt tolerate a rug of any sort.
 
The most effective and easiest way to avoid the symptoms of sweet itch is to rug the horse 24/7 with a sweet itch rug before the midge season starts, and until the end. So for us it is from beginning march to end oct - varies by area and the setting of your field. You need that barrier between the horse and the midge so they don't get bitten and so the allergic reaction isn't set off. Once that itch cycle starts you get wrecked rugs, sores and no mane and tail - it is very hard to treat from this point. You can improve things by dropping back the sugar and starch levels of your feed and by removing garlic, but the only way to tackle it 100% is to stop the reaction in the first place.
 
My mare took part in a trial for a new product for Hilton Herbs, think its now been named Bye Bye Itch. It really worked for her, she was much less itchy and was much nicer to be around this summer! Her mane and tail are looking the best they ever have since ive owned her. She can be a fussy mare but she ate it with no probs so i would recommend that for yours.
 
my pony has SI but has no itches or rubs and a full mane and tail.

once the pony starts to itch then it has already been bitten so the cycle has started.

my pony wears a snuggy hood most of the year round,in spring,summer and autumn to stop the midges and in winter to keep the mud at bay.

she was so bad at one time that i could not even stable her and no lotions helped,now she can be any where and not rub.
prevention is the secret.

i use pig oil on the parts that may get bitten for when i am riding.

i used electric fencing to keep her off of gates/trees ect. where she may have rubbed.

garlic helps the immune system and SI is over-reaction to bites so not recommended.

i also believe for BB to be effective,it has to be used before the midge season but have never used it myself.
 
hollyandivy123 said:
ok this is what worked best for me, remove any feed with molasses and remove garlic, if you have to feed chaff, hifi light and i also went back to feed basics and bought a naked grain mix in.
then i used benzyl benzoate on the crest and top of the tail. the field is then fenced with electric.
the horse use to be so bad i had to fence of the door frame otherwise he would rub down through the skin layers to the muscle. by changing his diet 90% of the symptoms went.
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I quite agree.
I wouldn't feed hi-fi lite though, because it does have some molasses. Instead I'd use dried grass as a chaff - Graze-on for preference or if you can't get that Readi-grass.
I had a sugar intolerant mare who also had mild sweet-itch. As soon as we took sugar out of her diet, her sweet-itch cleared up completely.
 
easier, cheaper and more effective than all of that os Cooper Spot On. It's a cattle and sheep de-louser that you can get form you local agri merchant or vet. You pour 10ml down the crest, back and top of tail once a month and that is it. You will also need no fly spray.

Ok, it is a bit greasy for a few days (like flea drops on cats), but very much easier than putting on benzyl benzoate every day.

A 250ml bottle (so that should last you 3-4 yrs) is about £40.
 
Brewers Yeast and Micronised Linseed greatly helped my SI mare. Brewers Yeast is a good repellant and the Lineed helps skin condition - lots of sweet itch sufferers seem to have dry skins as well. A fly rug like a Boett worn from March to October is also effective, but be careful you get the right fit - our pony was badly rubbed where the neck was joined to the body of the rug. I found the Boett type ones also tore easily so wasn't that impressed. Rambo's Sweet Itch Hoody is the best I've tried, it lasted 3 years and stood up to some quite serious rubbing in the first year. Even if you can't completely control the rubbing, the Rambo rug stops them doing themselves much harm.

Haven't heard of the Hilton Herbs remedy, but that might be worth a try. Global Herbs is brilliant IF you can get the horse to eat it!
 
thanks so much for advice from all as a newbie hear. shes not fed only hay at night as lives out. not so keen on chemicals, did check out Hilton trial info, like sound of it. am going to your horse with friends so wil visit there stand.
 
You need proper sweet itch rugs - the boett, there are many others on the market, but they are not as thick as the boett rug. You must put the rug on before the midges start to bite and leave the rug on, on hot days they will sweat, but its better than being bitten. You could also try a product that you get from the vet, called ‘Fidavet Cavalesse’ which is made up of an oral solution to be administered daily plus a topical gel to be used on the skin as and when required. Cavalesse utilizes B vitamins, containing high concentrations of nicotinamide which stabilises mast cell and inhibits histamine release.

You have to feed it at the beginning of the season. It worked very well for my horse.
 
TangoCurly said:
easier, cheaper and more effective than all of that os Cooper Spot On. It's a cattle and sheep de-louser that you can get form you local agri merchant or vet. You pour 10ml down the crest, back and top of tail once a month and that is it. You will also need no fly spray.

Ok, it is a bit greasy for a few days (like flea drops on cats), but very much easier than putting on benzyl benzoate every day.

A 250ml bottle (so that should last you 3-4 yrs) is about £40.
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Sounds like a good tip, My horse suffered and rubbed his mane and tail last year this year ive used a american fly spray proper premthein based stuff , not the teatree deet or other useless bunny hugger rubish , he has been much better almost no rubbing not been rugged and apart from a little bit or bother round his eyes he has been fly free... so yes you need a propper strong chemical to kill the midges that cause this horrible condition...
 
Hi I have a pony with sweetitch it is a horrendous condition. We have been using de-sensitising injections. We still keep him covered up with a boette rug and also a light weight NZ rug on top. The boette hood IMO is the best for covering the face as it covers his eyes too. He was never too hot with this on when he was outside and if it was really hot there were alot of flies about so we would stand him in. Bathing im regularly also helps. The injections have not cured him but he is at least 40% better than he is without them and it isn't because of anything different that we are doing or the flies have been better because the injections are now administered monthly and he gets itchier the week before his next jab is due. The vet says he has found it 50/50, some people have seen a real difference others have not. It will be expensive though (my mum pays for it so I don't know how much it is-sorry) it may be worth asking your vet what he thinks though. I have not found any feeding supplements that work just covering up, keeping him in at night and when it is very itchy and trying to keep him as comfortable as possible. I always think when he is sweaty it is worse so always hose down after working him and use medicated shampoo or dettol as I think it sooths. He is still covered up now, i tried letting him have his hood off but he started rubbing so that is still on too. I wil wait until it is properly frosty and cold cold throughout the day. The flies seem to be tougher and tougher every year.
 
it is definatly horses for courses. He used to get it really badly I remember his ears swelled up one year with sore and standing holdinh his ears with ice cubes on them to cool them down he loved it! I meant to add that he was put in a fully electric fenced square during the day with no trees or bushes or anything to scratch on, or horses that mutually groom while he was out (he is happy on his own but the others were next to him) I do think even when rugged all the time they can end up rubbing habitually or because they know it is itchy even though they are not being bitten if that makes sense and once they start rubbing it sets them off. I wish there was a proper cure. A one off jab that stopped it for good.
 
It may be worthwhile to have your horse blood tested. I assumed my boys itching was due to the Sweet-itch mdge but was mortified to discover he was allergic to allsorts of seasonal plants (nettles being one) When people have an itchy horse they automatically assume its sweetich (not necessarily so) thats why in some cases horses respond well to various different treatments. I tried immunotherapy (injections at various intervals) but it didnt work and proved to be very expensive.

The only thing that has worked for me is the Snuggy Hood Sweetitch set which he wears, as others have suggested from March till November. he doesnt hacve any supplements as they turn out more expensive in the long run and doesnt have any sprays or potions and he has a full main and tail now.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I quite agree.
I wouldn't feed hi-fi lite though, because it does have some molasses. Instead I'd use dried grass as a chaff - Graze-on for preference or if you can't get that Readi-grass.
I had a sugar intolerant mare who also had mild sweet-itch. As soon as we took sugar out of her diet, her sweet-itch cleared up completely.
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Completely agree. Sweet Itch is a systemic hyper-reactivity including but NOT exclusive to bites. I have to manage mine as a laminitic. She gets Hi-Fi Lite, brewer's yeast, linseed and in the proper winter, Veteran Vitality (half a scoop a day). I'm having to rug her at the moment as I've started to up her grass intake - I have to move them to another field next weekend due to a large firework display and so this is necessary preparation for that. Throughout the summer she's manageable on a bare paddock, with topical application of neem oil/benzyl benzoate every other day. So, first thing for OP is to take her off the grass!
 
my boy only developed it this year and so I didn't know he had it until it was too late and yes, it is really hard to manage it once it showed up. We do have a Boett that's been on all summer but I've stitched it up more times than I care to remember!

Next year I will be starting early with the boett (end of feb maybe depending on weather), putting him on capsules (available from sweet itch centre) and using some kind of pour on although I haven't decided which yet. I'm hoping to beat the itch by preventing it as much as possible!

andalusianlover - can the blood test be done at any time of year or only when the itching is present?
 
My vet was going to do the blood test but said they test for so many things that all horses are allergic to something and it would be too difficult to determine if it was that allergy causing the reaction. It could be allergic to American Oak trees but if there are none here its not going to affect it, also if it is allergic to something else it may not be that, that is causing it to react so much. This is why we went for desensitisation because it does what it says it does. We were thinking of doing this regardless as he would have needed it no matter what he was allergic too because we had done all we cold to keep him covered.
 
Wheels said:
my boy only developed it this year and so I didn't know he had it until it was too late and yes, it is really hard to manage it once it showed up. We do have a Boett that's been on all summer but I've stitched it up more times than I care to remember!

Next year I will be starting early with the boett (end of feb maybe depending on weather), putting him on capsules (available from sweet itch centre) and using some kind of pour on although I haven't decided which yet. I'm hoping to beat the itch by preventing it as much as possible!

andalusianlover - can the blood test be done at any time of year or only when the itching is present?
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The blood test can be done anytime and I can thoroughly recommend it. It certainly helped me decide how to go forward with/manage my boys itchyness.

As I said the desensitisation didnt work with my horse, I tried for 18 months but it was heartbraking watching my horse suffer 10 times as bad as he'd ever done before. My vet offered to give him steroid injections but with the tiniest risk of lami, I decided not to take that route. He now just wears a rug covering him from nose to tail including ears. he has a very full mane and tail and no signs of itching at all!

For anyone going through the desensitisation process, my insurance company would only pay for 12 months so it then becomes very very costly for the rest of the horses life!
 
mcrobbiena said:
My vet was going to do the blood test but said they test for so many things that all horses are allergic to something and it would be too difficult to determine if it was that allergy causing the reaction. It could be allergic to American Oak trees but if there are none here its not going to affect it, also if it is allergic to something else it may not be that, that is causing it to react so much. This is why we went for desensitisation because it does what it says it does. We were thinking of doing this regardless as he would have needed it no matter what he was allergic too because we had done all we cold to keep him covered.
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But the blood test will tell you if your horse/pony is allergic to the sweet-itch midge or not and you will know if it is allergic to anything in or around its paddock, surely that would help you manage your horses condition be it sweet-itch or just seasonal allergies??????
 
But it will still end up with the same result no matter what he is allergic to...and the vet said that there really wasn't much point as the results are too broad and for too many different things. If you test any horse it will come up with results that it is allergic to something.There was also another eason I can't really remember it was a long time ago but it was something to do with it being an American company and wouldn't give the results we needed so it would be better to try a course of desensitisation which would cost a similair amount to the blood test + allergy tests and sending to lab +results etc and if that works then keep going if not maybe think about testing again, but it did work so now I have a much happier pony.

Anyway, I said before in a post things work for some and not for others.Injections didn't work for yours but is working for mine. Hes not cured but he is far happier. I have tried every lotion and potion and feeding supplements and none have worked but this does. He isn't insured we just pay for the injections. None of our animals are insured. We have been very lucky and do our best to make sure no harm can come to them but if an operation needed doing we would pay for it there and then, but if it doesn't then we really don't need to be paying out for insurance.I can't remember the exact name of the stuff we inject I will look tonight and I don't know how much it costs. We administer them ourselves and it is only a very little amount that goes in, but it has definatly worked for him.
 
Andalusianlover said:
As I said the desensitisation didnt work with my horse, I tried for 18 months but it was heartbraking watching my horse suffer 10 times as bad as he'd ever done before.
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How come it made it worse?? We were still advised to keep him covered, it isn't a cure it just gives a little relief, like painkillers, that doesn't cure it, it just eases the symtoms. The clue is in the name...DESENSETISE (sp?!) to make him less sensitive.

But as I said in first post, the vet himself said he has heard 50/50 reviews, we were just fortunate to be in the luckier 50. I do not know however if it will be just as affective next year, I don't know wether he will build up a resistance to it or against it but this year he has been the happiest sweetitch wise in 15 years.
 
If you look at the National Sweet Itch Centre website they've got some good advice there.

You'll also see some information about a trial they've been running of something called the "BioEos" de-sensitisation. What you do is give the horse one dose (very easy, its just pill) once a week during the acute sweet itch season and its supposed to de-sensitise the horse.

They've got some quite impressive scientific data to support their claims; so might be worth a try?

Also, ditto above advice re avoid garlic & mollassess, and Benzyl Benzoate twice daily to affected areas. I managed to put mine out without a fly mask this year by doing that.

Also add to feed Brewers Yeast and Linseed. One scoop per feed. I've heard also that Clivers (sticky stuff that grows in hedges) is good for sweet itch. You can eithere feed it raw or buy as a supplement, plus seaweed also good I've heard.

Sorry, forgot to say that also it might depend on where you keep yours? Some places are bad for sweet itch, i.e. fields low-down near water and/or trees, or near common land where the midges congregate, or in deep valleys or near woodland areas, stagnant water like lakes etc. Best places are high-up fields where there's plenty of wind, or near the coast if you can!!! Hate to say this, but I had a sweet itchy pony when I was a child and we didn't know so much about it then, BUT we did know it was worse where we were at the time, so we sold the pony to someone who lived up on the moors. Also a friend had a pony with SI and moved it to a field on the coast and it was hardly suffering from sweet itch at all this summer!! So it just might be that if you can, you need to look for alternative turn-out arrangements. Not easy I know.

If you're riding out and midges are a problem: I got a Horseware ride-on fly rug; its abso-fab just dunno how I managed without it. And ever so easy to use you just clip it on. Well worth buying.

If buying a Boett to cover up; then go for that as tho' they're pricey they're good quality. I got a Pagony which is supposed to be a cheapy version of it, and the quality left a lot to be desired. So go for a Boett OR something like a Rambo sweet itch hoody which has lasted mine really well. Or a Pessoa hoody is fantastic - if you can find one.
 
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As sweet itch is an allergy the immune system needs to be altered and the best thing I have found for that is NAF D-tox.
The other this is to keep the midges away, Rugs help a great deal but there are always parts of the horse that are not covered. I found that tying several Bounce sheets on the animal helped a lot but, due tome having had a severe skin infection that the only thing that alleviated the itching was Neem Oil.

I haven't tried this for sweet itch but I have used it to keep horse flies away and fleas and ticks off the dog. It also has stopped red mite in the chicken houses and they are terribly hard to get rid of.
The Neem is solidified so needs soaking in a bucket of hot water and then for every 5 mls of Neem mix with 3 ml of liquid soap (I used Hibbi Scrub on the animals) and add 1 L of hot water and rub that into the animal all over.

I also use it on the garden and it has kept al the cabbage white butterfly away and stopped slugs and snails. Perfectly safe and very green.

If you start feeding the D-tox early in the year and continue through the summer in higher doses (15 ml X 2 a day) the following year you can cut it down and after that the chances are that the hors's immune system will accept the midges with no problem.
I have found this with several horses who had sweet itch.
 
Foxhunter49 said:
As sweet itch is an allergy the immune system needs to be altered and the best thing I have found for that is NAF D-tox.
The other this is to keep the midges away, Rugs help a great deal but there are always parts of the horse that are not covered. I found that tying several Bounce sheets on the animal helped a lot but, due tome having had a severe skin infection that the only thing that alleviated the itching was Neem Oil.

I haven't tried this for sweet itch but I have used it to keep horse flies away and fleas and ticks off the dog. It also has stopped red mite in the chicken houses and they are terribly hard to get rid of.
The Neem is solidified so needs soaking in a bucket of hot water and then for every 5 mls of Neem mix with 3 ml of liquid soap (I used Hibbi Scrub on the animals) and add 1 L of hot water and rub that into the animal all over.

I also use it on the garden and it has kept al the cabbage white butterfly away and stopped slugs and snails. Perfectly safe and very green.

If you start feeding the D-tox early in the year and continue through the summer in higher doses (15 ml X 2 a day) the following year you can cut it down and after that the chances are that the hors's immune system will accept the midges with no problem.
I have found this with several horses who had sweet itch.
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Another vote for Neem oil, great stuff, stinks like hell though :D

I've mixed it with a citronella shampoo and wash regularly, also with some cocoa butter and slather her in that.

A bottle of it goes a long way and it's very versatile.

I'll give the D-tox a try as well next year.
 
What you have to realise that sweet itch gets worse over the years. My mare when I first bought her, it was just mane tail and belly. I can no more get near her with any cream, specially if it has Benzole Bensolyte in it(it does burn) and she can smell it a mile off, she also has a needle phobia amongst other things. She has gone through 2 Boett rugs and Horseware sweet itch hoody this year plus face mask, I think this year has been a very bad year for the midges as the weather is still very warm. She is raw round her face and all four legs and there is little she will let me do. So on my Xmas list ia a new Boett+mask and mens pj's so I can sew them on the rug or use velco strips so her legs will be protected, also tried Cavallesse, which did work at the begining, but vet forgot to tell me to keep using and once stopped didn't work again, so shall try that again next year, starting Feb. They do say the midges are gone by Oct, has anyone told the midges that:mad:
 
you have to start prevention early whilst still cold weather. boett rugs are very good. sugar/cereal free bucket food does help. brewers yeast can help if they will eat it. benzol is good if you can get it from the chemist (it is very hard to get hold of) regular washing to keep skin clean (i find vosene is good) followed by a vinegar rinse (agood glug glug glug of brown vinegar to a bucket of water) to keep the skin ph at optimum. andf electric fencing and weed free paddocks and no access to hedgerows! and a fly/midge zapper attached to rug (with a good battery) available from camping shops. change batteries regularly every 6 weeks.
 
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