Please help...I'm out of ideas and it's driving me mad!!!

TopTotty

TopTotty

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OK...I have a two year old who if not careful is going to end his eventing career before it begins! :(
He has always been bedded on straw and has been fine until this spring when he started kicking the walls when he was stabled.
I tried every kind of shampoo known to man, creams, lice stuff etc etc and if I washed him off when he came in then he would be ok for maybe an hour before kicking again.
He had a steroid injection in May which made absolutley no difference at all.
We then moved house and he lived summer out and had a field shelter that had some barley straw in it. He seemed a lot better when he was in there so I ordered some barley straw and he seemed better than on the wheat straw but still occaisionally kicked the walls.
So I bit the bullet this week and got some very expensive shavings, bedded down on Monday and he has kicked more this week than ever before.

He is allergic to the vet in a big way so any treatment by the vet needs to be needed and not just 'tried'. :eek:

He is not just doing it for the sake of it as he gets very cross and tries to bit his hind pasterns and sometimes even draws blood on his front legs in frustration. :(

His ligaments above his hock all enlarged last year but over summer sorted theirselves out again..

I was so convinced it was the bedding as he is worse after I have put fresh straw down.

I wondered if anyone had any experience of this or if there was anything I could try feeding him......

He lives out at the minute with my three year old and they have a field shelter that is split into two and bedded down at night and have haylage twice a day.

He has never really had feed since he was a baby.

My next course of action is to bring him in and shampoo his legs before smoothering him in sudocrem or such like.

Is there anyone out there that can help me before he injures himself or knackers my stables!!!:confused::confused::confused:
 
If it is the bedding that he is allergic to I would try rubber mats with a sprinkle of shavings to absorb urine and see if that helps.

Supplements that can help are Global Herbs restore or NAF Detox I have found both have helped with itchy skin in general.
 
If you think it's the bedding then I am afraid the only solution is rubber mats. I use a small amount of wood pellets with rubber mats just to absorb the urine (I place it where they tend to wee).
 
Might be worth while trying paper bedding as very low in dust, spores or anything aggravating - I used to love having my horses on it
 
Are you sure it's the bedding and not just stress? After all, he does it with both straw and shavings.

There is a horse on the yard I'm on who bites his knees very savagely when he gets stressed. This is often in the field if it starts to rain or if he's bored. He also does it in the stable if he is hungry/cold/bored.

Does your horse do it in the field shelter? If not, is there any way he could live out all the time?
 
i have a mare with bad allergys it turned out shes allergic to lots of pollens including grass pollen and all cereals and sugar beet
the only think shes ok to eat is winergy feeds

i can bed her on straw either shes on paper but shredded un used bank nots as its also print free

what diet is he on, mines allergic to orchard grass midges, black ants fire anys as well,

she was blood tested and it was sent to
http://www.greendale.co.uk/

and shes on immune therpy

just a thought with rubber mats though as mines allergic to latex as she would swell up if i used a certain girth too
 
Thanks everyone, It is the field shelter that he is doing it in at the mo. I'm not entirely sure what he has to be stressed about as he has 5 acres and his sister and can come and go as he pleases. He is rugged up too at the moment but it comes off on the nice days. He is on Haylage only twice a day at the moment but was doing this when he was not on it aswell.
Thanks for all your suggestions I will look into them all. :)
 
Could it just be the feeling of bedding touching his legs? by washing them you stimulate the skin and it will 'ignore' the feeling of things touching the skin, bit like if you rub hard on an insect bite. Does he do it with absolutely no bedding in the shelter?
 
If it was me I would abandon the stable for a little bit. Come next year when there really is no grass and he is hungry I would then just bring him in for a feed, then put him out. I would gradually increase the time he is in (maybe split his feed in two and put one down when he came in then another after half and hour).

I would also check out what is good for skin sensitivity - maybe I would try Fast Fibre and Linseed (help, is linseed good for skin, I think the Omega oils are good?).

And of course if it was possible to have just rubber matting for that short time that would be good.

He has clearly decided that stables are a 'bad place' and whether it is the bedding or not you have to now take him back to stage one and retrain him to accepting the stable and having good manners while he is there. My mare used to hate being boxed in and it really was a case of little and often until it is now no longer an issue.

Another thought is do you do anything with him? Some leading work might make him a little bit better manners and respectful all way round.


Just read its the field shelter, agree thats a little bit more worrying and this probably isn't any use.
 
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I know he's not a hairy, but just in case its mites, have you tried the old heavy horse peoples remedy of pig oil and sulphur. You dont need a vet and its cheap enough.
 
canteron said:
If it was me I would abandon the stable for a little bit. Come next year when there really is no grass and he is hungry I would then just bring him in for a feed, then put him out. I would gradually increase the time he is in (maybe split his feed in two and put one down when he came in then another after half and hour).

I would also check out what is good for skin sensitivity - maybe I would try Fast Fibre and Linseed (help, is linseed good for skin, I think the Omega oils are good?).

And of course if it was possible to have just rubber matting for that short time that would be good.

He has clearly decided that stables are a 'bad place' and whether it is the bedding or not you have to now take him back to stage one and retrain him to accepting the stable and having good manners while he is there. My mare used to hate being boxed in and it really was a case of little and often until it is now no longer an issue.

Another thought is do you do anything with him? Some leading work might make him a little bit better manners and respectful all way round.


Just read its the field shelter, agree thats a little bit more worrying and this probably isn't any use.
Click to expand...

Hi,
He is not a problem with his manners. It is something I insist on from word go and we bred him. I can groom him, pick his feet out, hose him, put cream on, lead him, he knows to back up when we go in, he is really very well mannered in general.
Tonight I have bedded down again with the barley straw and put kill itch on his pasterns and it seems to have stopped it for the time being.
Many thanks for your reply and I am going to try him with no bedding and see what he does then.
:) :)
 
A friend's mare did the exact same thing and it turned out to be allergies to many many different things. Have you tired a blood test for allergies? It's amazing what they can be allergic to! Good luck getting him sorted out.
 
Yes I agree. Could well be an emotional/psychological problem he has with being confined for long periods. He's still very young and needs to let off steam a lot.
 
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