Pony covered in hives!!!!!

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Ali27

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We took our mare out of the stable this morning and she was covered in hives, some of them are about the size of a 10p coin. It is obviously an allergic reaction and she is itching like mad! My other mare is fine and they have exactly the same diet/ grazing.
The only change to her diet this week is that I have introduced graze on to try and make our haylage last longer. I have introduced it gradually over the last week and she now has a couple of scoops dried in a bucket alongside her regular feed of hifi, speedi beet, pony nuts in a ball.
I have just put her on rubber mats and shavings but don't think that could be causing it. My husband is convinced it is a heat reaction but I don't think so. As soon as the weather warmed up, I put her medium weight combo back on. She was ridden yesterday and got slightly sweaty under her saddle patch but nothing major as she is clipped ( although growing back).
Would be grateful if anyone has any ideas. I will get vet out tomorrow if they are still there.
 
we have a realy allergic boy at our yard who quite regually comes out covered in hives with massive glands ect, and we have narowed it down to the fact that although we dont change his diet it is changes in the hay, as we hav a large number of horses the hay comes from many different fields, once he has had the new hay for a few days it quietens down x
 
A severe allergic reaction can be dangerous and affect breathing in humans, I assume it's the same for horses so do consult with your vet about what signs to look for that might indicate danger.
 
Don't ever take urticaria lightly, it can be a killer. Our old pony came in from the field with unexplained bumps. His breathing became very laboured and if our vet hadn't arrived quickly, we would have lost him. His heart rate rose so high that she had to sedate him and he was quite poorly for a day or two. We never found out what had caused it.
 
Graze on is 16% protein which is the same as a stud mix I would eliminate this out of the horses diet now and go back to your old regime until all the hives have gone then when any horse gets fed to much protein it gets hot not like heat from the sun the skin will turn very flushed its gong to take around a week to get this out of its system so it wont happen over night. get your vet out just to be on the sae side Graze on is easy to over do but its very very potent.
 
Thanks for replies! I have just been up to check on her and the hives have nearly gone thank god! I am def going cut out readigrass but it is strange as my other mare has been fed it for years with no side effects!
I also spoke to her old owner and she also had one episode with her and they thought she had rolled in nettles. They gave her some human antihistamines and they soon went.
 
My retired mare overheats very quickly when rugged in winter and comes out in enormous hives.Now she is unclipped and lives out I simply don't rug her and only occasionally bring her in if she is soaking wet to dry for a few hours under a thermatex.When she was clipped and in work I was always worried that she wore fewer rugs than other horses but she always felt warm and held her weight rather too well so was obviously not cold!
 
She now has no signs of any hives so ibam wondering whether it was overheating. She has been out all day in a lightweight but have put mw combo back on tonight as it is getting so cold but have left neck cover down. I will try and clip her again in a few days time to make sure doesn't get hot when being ridden. I have also cut out the graze on to eliminate that as the cause. Thanks again for help!
 
I have had the same problem feeding Graze-on, after 3 days the urticaria appeared as protein lumps, mainly on neck, cheeks and shoulders. This happened to 3 out of 4 horses when I introduced it, all 3 were TB or TBx. Same thing happened with black sunflower seeds and was many years ago, these days I stick to high fibre and oil (maybe grass nuts at this time of year if a rescue comes in).
 
She started having graze on on Friday so it sounds like it could have been that then. I have cut it out now so will hopefully not have the problem again! Just annoying as I bought two bags of the stuff but my other mare seems fine on it and has eaten in the past without any problems!
 
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