Pony allergic to straw?

[Blueysmum]

Pony has moved from DIY and on shaving to full livery on straw.

She’s came out in loads of bumps all over her body, they look similar to fly bites but there are quite a few.

What can I do? I’m hoping I can give her something that will help and I don’t have to change to shavings because straw is included

 

[KittenInTheTree]

I would suspect that there is something such as lice or mites in the straw. Vet will know what to do.

 

[Blueysmum]

No other pony has the same issue just ours.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

My horse gets it sometimes off straw. I just give antihistamines.

 

[Bobthecob15]

it’s been quite warm the last few days, could it be heat rash? If she’s been rugged etc…mine used to get bumps over her stomach if she was too warm x

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

It sounds to me as if she needs to be taken off straw immediately. Giving antihistamines just so that the pony can live on 'free' straw is not justifiable imho, as an allergy sufferer myself. Can you negotiate a reduction in the livery cost for not using the included straw?

 

[Blueysmum]

Which antihistamines are old you recommend? I don’t mind going back to shavings at all as I don’t have to do the mucking out now

 

[PurBee]

It may be ‘chiggers’ - which is a name given to tiny crawling light beige/milky white insects which come from fields onto hay and straw. Their eggs are stuck to the fields plants and then in the warmth of the bales they hatch. They do bite, itch a lot and can barely be seen by the naked eye.

We once had 6 round bales of hay collected from a supplier, and rolling them to storage off the trailer we were both itching our faces and necks like mad! They felt like tiny pin pricks or heat-rash being bitten by them. Very close inspection of the bales i saw all these teeny tiny insects crawling about …max 1mm in size.

The thing with any biting aggravation - like midges or mosquitoes, the immune system has an initial first reaction which can present with lots of swollen bumps - but as the immune system educates itself about the ‘bite threat’ and either creates antibodies or realises that inflammatory cells weren’t needed, subsequent exposure episodes to the same threat wont show the same immune response, because its now ‘educated’ itself.

So the fact the other horses/ponies on the yard dont have bumps, doesnt necessarily mean theyre not exposed to the same thing, but that their immune system has read the threat as no threat, and no longer react with hives.
Your horse has had first exposure to a new thing and its immune system should not react to subsequent exposure, like all the other horses bedded on the same straw.
However, if you horse has health conditions which cause the immune system to be imbalanced, or has allergy ‘attacks’ to common things, it might be that even safe chigger bites for example could always cause a reaction. Your choice then would be as suggested by others, try and get livery fee reduction and change to a safe bedding.

My mare when first exposed to midges here had hives everywhere…large hives! I was horrified. The next day, they were going down, and had gone completely over the course of the week, despite still being bitten by midges. The rest of the midge biting season she didnt react at all. We get swarms of them here within forestry lands, enough to drive you mad. Her initial response was a healthy immune system doing what it should. Once it assessed no threat to the bites, it stopped producing inflammatory cells causing hives.

We get midges/mozzies/horse flies/biting black flies/ticks here - and every year here i have an initial reaction to the first bites, swelling, itchiness….but then the more bites i receive the less of a reaction i show. Except horse flies and ticks, as they can carry germs the immune system needs to react against.

If your horse just has small bumps and no other symptoms like appetite loss/chest swelling/lip swelling/change in breathing/swollen eyes…and is acting themselves as normal but just has small bumps, i’d guess the hives will go on their own. An immune response is a natural response to any ‘invasion’ of the body. Most of the time its a measured response to a threat - sometimes the immune system goes overboard creating excessive symptoms and anti-inflammatories/histamines are needed.

So often we are never sure what causes hives and so many of us owners experience the hives just going away on their own and we are left in the dark as to cause. Providing your horse isnt having other symptoms alongside the hives, i’d give it a couple of days to see if they go down on their own. If they get worse every 24hrs, there’s likely an overactive immune system, to what all other yard horses are fine with, giving you more knowledge of your horses health and their very sensitive immune system response. (I’d then focus on gut biome health with such a horse as immune system health and gut health are intrinsically linked)
Or the straw isnt the culprit, and there’s something else ‘new’ theyve been exposed to…toxic plants in new grazing field? or a common allergen in new brand of bagged feeds recently fed like soy etc?

 

[holeymoley]

Mine came up with some crusty bumps on his belly and underside when he first went on to straw. I just washed them and put cream on them. They went away and he’s been fine on straw if required ever since. I’d keep an eye though if she looks overly itchy or swollen though, could be quite a severe reaction.

 

[criso]

I had the opposite with mine and he was allergic to shavings and came up in bumps. Keeping him off shavings fixed it.