itchy legs? what could it be??

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cidermillcottage1

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my horse is suffering from really itchy legs at the moment...back legs, quite high up (past hocks) on the insides...

her hairs have gone really rough here and she is loosing a little bit of hair but not much. Its definately driving her mad tho - she is stomping her back legs and trying to scratch them on the fence and chicken house!

Could it be some sort of mite?? She doesn't have it anywhere else and generally is in v good condition...

I'm going to call the vet on tuesday but wondered if anyone had any ideas??

thankyou
 
Do you have many buttercups out in the field?

My Arabs very sensitive at the moment and tries to scratch herself on everything - as the field is electric fenced that everything is me!!
 
My mare has gets mites in her legs, but it is lower down around her fetlock area.

Can you see anything on her legs? I have to clip my mare's legs to be able to see, but she does have small crusty places that are clearly itchy.

She has a dectamax injection and then she is fine.
 
Defo sounds like feather mites cidermill. A heavy burden of them can cause the skin to thicken and - eventually - cause scar tissue to form. Your best bet is to clip her feathers away and get in there with hibiscrub to clear up what sounds like a secondary bacterial infection from her scratching the terrible itchiness, then either get some Frontline and work it well in so it reaches the skin, or your vet can give the injection that Maisy says. Either the Frontline or the injection will need to be repeated after 10 days as the 1st application will kill all the adult mites but the next batch of eggs will hatch in 10 days and they will need killing too. Be aware that feather mites also live in the horse's bedding so you may have to repeat this a couple of times a year. Also, I'm certain that the same mites happily live around chickens so you might have to treat the hen house too!
 
thanks for the reply box of frogs!
when you say feather mites..do these only affect heels/fetlock areas or can they be higher up? Her itching is well above the hocks on the insides of her thighs i guess...(sorry don't know what the horsey term is for that area!!)
 
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