Horse with hayfever/summer allergy

[boxcarhorse]

My horse seems to have some sort of summer hayfever/allergy and each year it seems to be getting worse.

I ride him in a nose net in the summer, but not only does he twitch and shake his head at this time of year, he also snorts and coughs just like someone with hayfever.

Does anyone else have experience of this? And can you suggest anything that might help him? ie. supplements, management? Is there a time of day when pollen counts are lower or higher? He does seem better on cold, wet days and worse on warm, sunny days.

Thanks in advance.

 

[onemoretime]

Not had any experience of this myself but someone I heard of fed thier horse with this problem honey and the problem stopped.

 

[SallyBatty]

Luckily my horse who has a pollen allergy is fine with a nose net. However, in my area I do know a few people who have used honey successfully but it does have to be locally made honey for it to have the desired effect.

 

[scarymare]

I had one of these and so did a friend of mine. Its basically like a form of COPD where instead of hay spores the horse is allergic to pollen. However unlike COPD (ROCD) you can't take the problem away by for example soaking hay. I'm afraid that both of the horses mentioned above eventually ended up as broodmares - sorry, probably not the answer you wanted but I'm sure others have experience of this which is hopefully more constructive!

 

[kerrieberry2]

the only summer allergy my mare gets is the occasional reaction to a fly bite, she gets little lumps come up all over her! first time it happened she had a massive one and loads of little lumps, vet just gave her an anti-histamine injection. so now if she gets it I just give her an over the counter table in a bit of apple and that seems to do the trick!

but nothing like your reaction