Soothing fly bites

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TheLopingPony

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The Internet isn't really providing me with anything useful, so thought I'd see what everyone else does for flies.

My mare seems to be a magnet for flies (not sure exactly which one it is that gets her, presuming horse flies) and whenever one gets her, she gets a little swollen lump on her skin which fades after a week or so. We've been really lucky so far this summer and managed with fly spray and a fly rug and mask and not had anything too extreme.

She came in today with a lot of these little swollen bite lumps on her side which were all were a couple of cm in diameter. Think they were definitely upsetting her as she didn't take too kindly to me touching her near them.

Is there anything I can use to help soothe them for her? I've been using a medicated shampoo once a week anyway which seems to help, but I don't want to be bathing everyday so any other tried and tested methods would be appreciated.
 
My old cob reacts very badly to horse fly bites. It's one of his triggers for an asthma attack. Currently having good results using loratadine antihistamine, 1 x 10mg tablet per 100kg bodyweight daily. He has had a couple of days of heavy breathing when the humidity has been high, and the occasional cough, but his mood is good and he is bright and sparky. He's also in a full neck zebra print rug, with belly cover, and a full head mask.
 
Friends mare is the same, she uses anti-histamines also which works well. I think 15 Cetirizine per day until the swelling goes down. My mare is on cetirizine every day anyway to see if it helps with sweet itch and when a horse fly gets her there is no swelling and minimal irritation.
 
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