PLEASE HELP! EXTREME SKIN IRRITATION

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leahdino

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<font color="red"> </font> PLEASE HELP!!!!
My Welsh Section D mare is in a terrible state with this incessant itching which has now been going on for over 5 months with no improvement.

We had the vet ages ago and he did skin scrapes and a blood test which showed nothing, he put her on a course of steroids which seemed to help a little but not a lot.

We thought it was stress related to begin with, as I had jus gone away to university, but i've been back 6 weeks now and she is no better, worse if anything. She has rubbed a lot of hair off, and this morning we went down to find she had rubbed one of her shoulders raw, it was bleeding and sore. Her whole body is covered in very dry flaky dandruff.

She was on oats before but has been on a diet of chaff, linseed oil, feel good 30 skin supplement, garlic and cod liver oil for a long time now

We have bathed her first with a tea tree shampoo and then this weekend with baby shampoo- for its mildness but neither of these made any difference

She normally has a beautiful coat, but does suffer from fly bites in the summer.

I'm sorry this is such a long post, but she desperately needs help as we just don't know what else to do, shes in such a state and very unhappy

thanks
 
Stop the garlic and see if it makes a difference, there have been many studies on the effects of garlic and it's side effects on sweetitch prone ponies and it has definitely has a detrimental effect causing more itching in those susceptible.

Another product to try is LeoVet Bio-Skin Oil and their other product for irritated skin, the name escapes me at the moment.

The oil is very soothing and relieves the itching immediately.

IMO it does sound like she an allergy to something you are feeding and only by process of elimination will you get to the bottom of it. Remove one food or supplement at a time and watch for any changes.....
 
My mare had these symptoms last year - she was really bad with it and the vet couldn't find anything. I ended up giving her a full clip and a bath and making sure she had a good groom every day. She had the flaky dandruff stuff, too. After clipping her it seemed to go away, so long as she was groomed well and regularly.
 
I'd keep her on a hay only diet for a week and them reintroduce the hard food and supplements (if she needs them?) one at a time leaving at least a few days or ideally a week between changes.

You can also get a really good wash for the dandruff flakes, I'll have a look in my box later. Its one desgined for dogs, but cleared up my horses scabby elbows.
 
Try NAF Detox. It worked for my boy he had patches of hot itchy spotty skin. Tried everything and steroids. I had no faith in the Detox, but it worked.

Jane
 
Some horses are irritated by tea tree oil - one at our yard had a really bad reaction to it. I would avoid using it, or test on a small patch of skin first.
 
try using camrosa shampoo, also a bit of an old wives tale is that feeding and bathing with a dilute solution of cider vinegar may help I know its quite good for treating rainscald, just try a small patch first.
 
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