Shetland with Sweet itch!?

[mrfluffyfeet.]

My Shetland mare has sweet itch , when i bough there they said they maintained it every year simply by using a fly rug...
I have done this all summer and i checked her regularly , i noticed her tail starting to itch again so i purchased safe care products and started to apply it but even with the fly rug i see its getting worse , can anyone advise me on what is best to do of her now ? any good products ? , Im going to purchase her a Horzehoodz for winter to cover her mane but its her tail I worry about. What should i do to help her be itch free.
I have her now with a turnout rug on with a long tail flap that covers all her painful bit and still applying the safe care products.


Many Sweet itch products are EXTREMELY expensive so I don't want to waste lots of money, I would like to find a good
product that works!

 

[Apercrumbie]

Best way is a full sweet itch rug March-October. No point having one in winter as there's nothing to bite her. Then the challenge is keeping them clean as dirt and scurf just irritate the skin even more. The rug needs washing at least once a week. With my mini he gets a weekly bath and rug change. Use a mild shampoo designed for irritated skin and make sure to thoroughly rinse out. Groom as often as you can - obviously they enjoy it because they're itchy but it also helps keep the skin clean. I've never found an 'anti sweet itch' cream that works tbh. We use Aniwell Filtabac which is a bit like sudocrem and hypocare on any sores. IMO the 'specialised' creams are overpriced rubbish.

You can use a product called Cavalesse. You start feeding it before the sweet itch season starts to help build up resistance. It does often work. If you decide to do this, you can get the active ingredient very cheaply online - it's called Vitamin B3 or Nicotinamide and helps support the skin's immune system. I genuinely think it has helped, although obviously mine still does have sweet itch. He has two pills a day in sweet itch season and one a day in winter.

 

[be positive]

You are covering the areas she is rubbing but the midges that cause the reaction known as sweet itch will usually bite under the tummy and the legs, the saliva that is injected by the biting then affects systemically with the mane and tail tending to be the areas that get rubbed so the tummy and legs really need the protection from the midges and they are the places to apply the products.
She should be fine without a rug once the midges stop being so active, they are worst at dawn and dusk so in the winter she could be out in the dark without requiring a rug, in spring, summer and autumn it may help to bring her in for a few hours each evening when they tend to be really bad.
Washing the tail regularly can help, if it is very thick she may be getting hot as much as anything else, I guess you are not feeding her but if you are avoid anything with sugar, molasses, no garlic which can make them far worse, possibly give her some brewers yeast or a marmite sandwich as that can help.
The products tend to be trial and error, what works for one is useless on another, apply under tummy, back of front legs, front of hind legs, not the most obvious places but that is where the midges go and it is a difficult place to cover well.

 

[D66]

Midges can bite any time of year if the temperature is consistently above 10 degrees, keep an eye on the weather forecast. A boett rug is the gold standard, we had one for our itchy pony and it kept him comfortable with mane and tail intact. I only washed it 3/4 times a year.
It is worth doing a test on excluding in turn all feed stuff the pony might be getting - alfalfa has been known to cause itchiness.