Itchy horse

[Louby]

Posted on here last year and recently about my boys itchy hocks, well hes now a itchy horse in other places. No lumps or bumps but hes now rubbing the sides of his head, has itched his hocks so that theres a 2p sized wound on the side and is rubbing his tail. Vet has given me ivomec??? for mites but Im not convinced it is mites (had skin scraping last year that came back clear). He itched his hocks last summer and then in November??? and has been doing it again for a few weeks.
Do you think its a form of sweet itch? Any advice on how to manage it.
Ive tried various itch lotion with no effect, been using Coopers that woorked upto this week and am now on Benzyl benzuate. He wears a fly rug and fly mask during the day and is stabled at night. Vet said if it isnt mites then he thinks he has an allergy that he can test for but said its expensive. Ive just stopped feeding him Pasture mix incase its a cereal intollerance. I feel really sorry for him.

 

[Nari]

Try treating it as sweetitch & see how he responds.

Is the fly rug a good sweetitch one or does it just protect from flies? The good sweetitch ones are expensive but they really do help & cover a lot more then normal rugs (there are some cheaper reasonable ones around though if you want to try one, do a search for Solva Icelandics & look at the Pagony). Cover any unrugged area in sonething like Nettex Stop-Itch salve.

Try giving him a bath if he's very itchy but make sure you rinse him thoroughly & use a very mild shampoo or even just water.

I'm told this year has been particularly bad for sweetitch

 

[paulo]

would some sort of antihistimine help?

 

[Louby]

Thanks for replying. Hes just got a fly rug at the moment and Id happily buy him a good one if I thought it would help but would you keep it on 24/7 and if so would I need 2 as I presume the one worn in the stable would end up covered in poo!
Ive never dealt with a horse with sweet itch

I was looking at the Nettex the other day but the £20+ price put me off incase it didnt work.

 

[Louby]

I will ask the vet, thanks

 

[Louby]

Just had a look at the Pagony, what a great price

Im not sure it would fit him though, hes in a 6' 6 to 6' 9. Typical, I'll end up with a boett

 

[paulo]

http://www.aromesse.com/pages/aromaitch.htm

 

[Louby]

Great, thanks for that

 

[darksecret99]

This may sound odd, but... my boy has grazed his hocks from rubbing his sheath when rolling... would tie in with the itchy tail too..... when his bits are dirty he seems to get itchy all over!!!

A bit of a random suggestion (but cant do any harm) - you could see if a w1lly wash improves things?!

 

[Louby]

Hey thanks for that. I will try anything, rubber gloves tomorrow Eeeek

Hes long overdue in that department