How do you know if your horse has sweet itch?

[Kacey88]

8 year old horse, never showed any signs of sweet itch before has started itching her tail and parts of her mane in last three weeks. Its very mild though, I only saw her itching a few times. Tail just looks a bit messy, she isn't breaking any hairs or anything and her mane is the the same although I can see she has broken a few hairs, her skin is perfect though if a bit scurfy so I put her on linseed. If she has a rug on she doesn't itch at all. Her diet is sugar free and hasn't changed in months. The flies are pretty awful here, and she has a few bite marks too but nothing major at all. I've had her over two years and she had a very long mane and tail when I got her with no signs of anything.

My question is, can sweet itch be so mild it only occurs some years for a short while? She's not doing any damage so it probably isn't worth covering her up?

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

8 year old horse, never showed any signs of sweet itch before has started itching her tail and parts of her mane in last three weeks. Its very mild though, I only saw her itching a few times. Tail just looks a bit messy, she isn't breaking any hairs or anything and her mane is the the same although I can see she has broken a few hairs, her skin is perfect though if a bit scurfy so I put her on linseed. If she has a rug on she doesn't itch at all. Her diet is sugar free and hasn't changed in months. The flies are pretty awful here, and she has a few bite marks too but nothing major at all. I've had her over two years and she had a very long mane and tail when I got her with no signs of anything.

My question is, can sweet itch be so mild it only occurs some years for a short while? She's not doing any damage so it probably isn't worth covering her up?

Mmmm, have you moved your mare recently onto a different field?

Sweet itch CAN affect different horses in different ways, which is why I ask if she's been moved to a different field or anything, or her regime has changed.

Sugar-free diet is good for SI horses, as is linseed. Avoid garlic though.

When you say "rug" do you mean like a fly rug? Coz the whole point of putting a SI horse in a rug is to stop the midges biting. Flies are a huge nuisance, yes, but its not flies that cause Sweet Itch, its the cullicoides midge, which bites the horse, which then reacts to the saliva in the midge's bite, which makes the horse then itch - its basically an allergic reaction.

Flies don't have anything to do with SI!!!

The worst pasture/turnout for a horse with SI is on low lying pasture near to standing water, trees, or common land as these are all areas which midges congregate. The best pasture would be as high up as possible, as windy as possible, away from standing water/ponds and overhanging trees, on sandy or chalky soil. So that's why I ask whether your mare has had a change of field recently as this is enough to set it off. If she's really bad and there's a lot of midge around, you could stable her for the "dawn" and "dusk" periods which is when the midges are most active, this will help her a lot.

I'd be inclined to keep her in a hoody/fly rug. Rambo do the best, also Premier Equine do a nice range reasonably priced. Its the "sweet itch hoody" that's the best thing to buy rather than just a fly rug. See how she goes in that; it won't do any harm and might do a lot of good. If she is itchy then a good topical application is either Sudocrem (cheapest) or Killitch (benzyl benzoate active ingredient) which will calm things down.

Also you could feed a teaspoon or so of brewers yeast in every feed, plus Clivers (sticky stuff in hedges) plus Cider Vinegar helps too apparently. You can buy a whole lot of expensive gunk preparations but IME you can just chuck good money after bad with them.

Search for "sweet itch" on here, there's loads of info on HHO.