Ideas for a serious sweet-itch sufferer?

metalmare

metalmare

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Hi,

My neighbour has a pony with pretty severe sweet itch. She has almost no knowledge of horse care, having started horse ownership in the last year or so, from scratch. She hadn't heard of sweet itch until I explained it. I have advised her to seek help on here, but as far as I know she never has and relies on me and other neighbours for support.

She is open to friendly advice (given carefully so as not to cause offense).

She has her pony in a rambo sweet itch hoody, full face mask, stabled during the day and is applying a spray given by the vet (she's not sure of the name) as well as putting sudocrem on sore areas. The paddock is on a pretty windy hill, with no standing water close by.

The pony has scabby ears and had rubbed his mane and tail until they bled, but is showing improvement now. To add to the problems he is head shy and anxious and they are scared of him. I have recommended she find something more suitable, but anticipating this advice not being taken, what more can they try to help the poor itchy pony?

Thanks!
 
Try feedmark's equidermis or dodson & horrel itch free. Herbal supplements. Will help the skin to heal and soothe itching.

Keeping the areas that itch clean seems to make a difference, so either lots of grooming or a regular bath in tea tree shampoo (tea tree oil is antiseptic and insect repellent).

An oily cream in the mane and tail will stop the midges biting here. Try dermoline sweet itch lotion or the yellow summer fly cream. Sprays containing DEET are effective for the body and legs. Spray on your hand and wipe over ears/face. Benzyl benzoate (in sudocrem) either works well, or causes skin peeling if the horse is allergic.

Does the face mask have ears? Sounds like this pony would benefit.

Anxious people often faff with creams etc. Doing it once, firmly and quickly, to get the cream on, is a lot easier than someone constantly poking and dabbing ineffectively at the sore spots, then giving up because the pony is getting cranky.
 
unfortunately, this year, if the pony has already started scratching there is not a great deal you can do, other than what you're already doing.

My old cob mare can have dreadful symptoms from sweet-itch (red raw areas on face) - but I found if I started rugging up with a good rug soon enough, and sprayed with copious amounts of fly spray (I use Avon Skin So Soft - but I do think what works for one, isn't as great for another, so it's trial and error) she copes ok. I would also do my utmost to minimise her opportunities to scratch....I put an anti-weave grill on her stable door and electric taped her field. Sounds mean, but like us, once you start scratching it is near impossible to stop!
 
Ah, I wondered about herbal supplements - I'll pass those names on.

They have also electric taped around the paddock. An anti-weave grill sounds a good idea anyway as the horse also jumped a 4' gate the other day to get to its mates. No attempt to tackle the stable door yet, but a grill wouldn't hurt!

The mask does have ears - I can only think the ears have been bitten while she's riding? A ride-in mask would be an easy improvement.

It'll help them even if I pass on that there is little more they can do and that next year, pre-warned, will be better.
 
It does get better - have hope! Once you've learnt what works for that particular animal, it does improve. A showjumping style fly veil when riding might help. But tbh, with mine, she doesn't have a face cover or ear mask anymore because she is sprayed with that much product the little beggars don't have a chance in hell of landing on her! :)

(P.s - for the face I spray product onto a sponge and apply - you get much more on all over, without the pony losing the plot because you've got the demon spray near it's head! lol)
 
What is the pony's grazing like?? Sounds like a bizzare question I know, but it has recently been found that the sugars in grass actually cause inflamation all over the body - not just in the feet. It is this inflamation that becomes itchy and what triggers the itch scratch cycle that is known as sweet itch...once the skin is sore / broken, the biting insects strike thus making it worse. hense the reason it hasn't compltely dissapeared with the use of fly rugs etc.

I am pretty confident that if the pony's grass intake is reduced the itching will too reduce. also increasing the pony's exercise so that it burns off some of the grass it consumes definitely helps too! I have found this has positive results with my horse.

She could try feeding some supplements to help the pony metabolise the sugar better - two key ones being brewers yeast and magnesium.

She could also try making her own insect repellent using Avon skin so soft, lavender, Eucalyptus, tea tree, citronella and White wine vinegar and topping the rest of a litre bottle up with water ;)

My (previously) itchy boy is out unrugged for just 12 hours a day and is currently itch free under the above regime. It is also worth noting that he has been verging on laminitic earlier this year, despite not being overweight, so I am more than convinced the two conditions are related ;)
 
Hi CBFan. Those are really interesting ideas. To strengthen your idea, my boy has had sweet itch and lami in the past, but there is no sign of either condition since I've owned him - he has been on bare keep...


Back to the pony in question - he is on rich grazing, full of clover and plenty of it. They have now fenced off a smaller paddock, but it is not yet eaten off. He is, I would say, a 4 out of 5 on the fat scale.

He is now, however, coming in for 12 hours a day. I could suggest she also soaks her hay.

He gets little exercise - her husband leads her out a couple of times a week, walking a couple of miles. He is lunged pretty much weekly, too.

Anything that helps the pony re sugar intake can't be a bad thing anyway!
 
I have a cob who is always pretty itchy - not sweet itch but very itchy. I have tried various herbs and homeopathic remedies but nothing seemed to work. Just last week I started to try a bit of apple cider vinegar and some garlic in his v small feed. I found this on a site for sweet itch sufferers.
 
Also sweet itch treatment needs to start Feb or march before the scratching starts, for best results. You get a few months off all treatment in winter and can sometimes reduce or stop creams and bathing in autumn, that's all. Fly rug, herbs and spray are easier to deal with when its wet and muddy than creams.
 
Yeah... definitely prevention is better than cure.

These people were sold this pony in March - no mention of sweet-itch. When it became apparent and the sellers were contacted they 'knew nothing!'
 
Hi there - I'm not sure if it's the exactly the same, but it sounds like the itch we get in the coastal parts of Australia. I had a Welsh B pony stallion who used to really suffer, and I found supplementing with sulphur and copper helped enormously ..... amounts vary, I think if you google Pat Colby's methods online you'll find the right amount. Also, I used to mix some eucalyptus oil in with any standard oil and rub it along his spine....... this kept flies away from him as well and was sticky enough not to be washed off by rain.
 
metalmare said:
Yeah... definitely prevention is better than cure.

These people were sold this pony in March - no mention of sweet-itch. When it became apparent and the sellers were contacted they 'knew nothing!'
Click to expand...

it's interesting than symptoms tend to start / worsten when the grass starts coming through...

and in fairness to your neighbours pony's previous owner, the pony may never have suffered before - particularly if she was on bare grazing ;)

It's brilliant that her patch of grazing has been reduced. Is there another animal that can help munch it down quicker?

I would try to gently persuade her to exercise the pony a little more - even 20 mins on the lunge 2 or 3 times a week but the walking out in hand is a good idea too - as long as pony marches along and doesn't have the opportunity to stop for a snack!

As for future planning she should be encouraged to get the pony's weight right down over the winter and make her a small paddock very early in the spring (if she doesn't keep her in a restricted paddock all year... she may also like to consider a track system (paddock paradise) for grazing in the future too :)
 
Thank you so much for all the ideas guys!

True, they might not have known. Although it was sold as a safe pony and came off the trailer with a chain through its mouth... less said the better.

They've obviously made a good start with advice from various quarters and there's a few more good ideas here to try out.
 
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