vanderton1
New User
For the last three years I have owned my horse, she has intermittently broken out in hives in the winter. We have limited turnout and are stabled on straw and have haylage rather than hay. I pretty much feed the same hard feed winter and summer. And she has had different feeds over the last 3 winters but equally still had reactions. This year the reactions are much more frequent but they still come and go. I'd say on average she comes up in hives every couple of weeks. At which point she has a steroid injection from the vet. After the third reaction this winter, I got her allergy tested and unfortunately, this came back with her only allergy being to hazel pollen - not helpful. The vet thinks it is contact related as 99% of the time it only occurs on her neck and she has standard neck rugs on so this is the only bit exposed. I also have a lycra snuggy hood which I put on and this does help somewhat but not entirely. I swapped on to shavings 2 weeks ago and within the first 4 days her skin cleared up and she looked great. The last two days, she has developed some small hives again around her throat at neck as usual. So now I am completely baffled. Any suggestions as to where I go from here is greatly appreciated!
