Hives/allergy to fly bites/summer

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sjdress

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My very sensitive horse has come up in what I presume is hives but could be allergies to fly bites as he get quite sore on his face from them. The ‘hives’ are all down one side. Any advice for this? He is in during the day and out at night but seems to be coming out in them in the day rather than when he is out. They appear to be itchy but not particularly sore for him.
 
It could be caused by so many things and your OP is a little lacking in detail which is probably why you have had no response, what have you done so far to treat it? what is the horse fed? is he in a fly rug? is he out with others who have similar or are they fine? is the stable in full sun so the flies are coming in which may be worse than leaving him out.
My first thought would be he is reacting to something he is eating, being only on one side does not rule that out, so I would take him off all hard feed, if he is getting any, and see if that helps, I would wash the area with something mild such as a tea tree oil or lavender wash and turn out in a fly rug so he has some protection from the flies in the evening and morning, give it a week and then reassess as to whether you need a vet to help get to the bottom of it.

I would also give his stable a really good clean out to check there are no insects living there and also consider changing whatever he is bedded on in case it is a reaction to that.
 
He’s only fed mollssses free hifi and hay, which hasn’t changed and bedded on shavings. His stable does end up in the sun by the afternoon, however I can’t leave him out as nothing else is out in the day and he won’t stay out by himself. We did have wasps at the yard but the nest was fumigated and there don’t appear to be many around anymore but I did wonder if it could be wasp stings?
I’ve checked his stable but nothing obvious. No other horses are coming out lik this either. This happened last year when I first got him, however he hadn’t been turned out for months so I presumed it was allergies to grass/ change in routine, flies, feed etc, but surprised it’s happened again this year as he has been fine until now. I’ve given him antihistamines which seems to have taken them down a bit and were looking much better when I got him in this morning.
 
We had one here that had similar for no obvious reason, the vet couldn't do much other than to give steroids which worked until they stopped then it came back, what sorted it out completely was a course of NAF Detox they went within days of starting it and never came back so that is worth a try as everything else seems to be looked at .
 
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