Itchy Scritchy Yearling!

Nasicus

Nasicus

Well-Known Member
Joined
15 December 2015
Messages
2,426
Visit site
Yearling is pretty itchy at the moment, especially around the face and mane, always rubbing on things.
Mane was in a particularly bad state the other day, rubbed clumps out and sore, so she'd obviously found a good spot and gone to town since the night before!

She's out now with a high necked flyrug with tummy flap, and flymask (without a nose, I tried her with a nosed one and she stood there like someone has pressed the off switch on her till I look it off again!). Gets sprayed with quality flyspray in all the exposed places, and her mane conditioner spray is also fly repellent.

However, she's always liked to rub her head bald in spots like the base of the ears since I got her, so I'd like to feed something to help support the skin a bit more.

I used to feed my previous 12yo Mare Global Herbs Turmeric with Pepper and Flax Oil, as well as a scoop of garlic, and she got that in a handful of Healthy Hoof. It seemed to work as she was very itchy until she'd been on the turmeric and oil for a few weeks.

Is turmeric safe to feed to a 15mo yearling? Or are there maybe better skin supporting supplements which could help?

She currently gets Honeychop Plain Oat Straw, scoop of Saracens level growth, cup of fast fibre, small scoop of general purpose supplement to support the grazing and a shotsized scoop of micronised linseed. She gets this average 3 times a week, otherwise she just stuffs her face with grass hah!
 
Aaah, interesting! I do feed NAF GP Supplement which contains Zinc Oxide, she gets a 30g scoop in every food. Do you reckon this might not be enough?
 
Be careful with feeding minerals if you have no particular reason Personally, I would feed a small amount of something like equimins original or any feedmark broad spectrum mineral and 25gms of micronised linseed, and no molassess or high spec food,
Are there any ridges in the hooves?
 
What advantages to the equimins/feedmark ones have over the NAF General Purpose supplement? She gets the micronised linseed already so that's covered :)

Her chaff is Honeychop plain Oat Straw, originally she was on basic mollichaff, but I wasn't happy with feeding her the unnecessary molasses. The little bit of fast fiber she gets doesn't contain molasses either. Her stud balancer does contain a bit of molasses, but she doesn't get enough of that for it to be a concern to me.

No ridges in hooves, hooves are actually really good, farrier always raves about them when she comes to trim! They were a bit rubbish when I got her, but 8 months down the line we've nearly regrown the entire hoof with strong, healthy hoof!
 
Last edited:
Nasicus said:
That was my first worry Cortez. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Sweetitch (not just fly) rug, keep in at dusk & dawn, fly spray that has DEET in it/i.e: that works. Not much else you can do I'm afraid, although perhaps there are others with more suggestions?
 
My very first foal was the only foal I had that year. When weaned, she went out with a geriatric pony mare - but managed to kill her! Whoops. So for a few weeks ahe was alone until I managed to decide her next companion (a retired gelding) and in that short time she started itching (ALL the midges in her patch only had one target!) For years we tried everything - the expensive sweet-itch rug (which she ripped to bits), every fly spray and cream known to man. She's been a brood mare since she was 4 (now 13). Being in a big group of mares she has less attack now and weekly we plaster her with Summer Cream (nice and thick!) She doesn't have a hell off a lot of mane and tail but the rest of her stays reasonably clear and she's had some fabulous foals (no sign of heredity!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top