Sweat allergy

[Ginn]

My delightful madam has developed a considerable allergy to her own sweat. We've suspected it for a few years, since she properly started work as a 4/5 yr old but in the last 12 months it has become progressively more of a problem...

Now when sweaty she becomes very irritated and aggrivated by touch, the lighter the touch the worse it is and on 2 extreme occasions has required an emergency call out from the vet as she has thrashed and shook so badly she was at risk of damaging herself and anything she came into contact with (we think these particular incidents may have been coupled with an extreme reaction to a fly bit - something else she is hyper sensitive to!). More typically she twitches and shakes when touched until she has fully dried and breaks out in a rash where she has sweated. During work I just need to be aware of it so for e.g. am conscious of not letting her reins rest on her neck once the twitching starts but generally she is OK until she's finished work... vets are slightly bemused! but we are looking at treatment/management both in the short and longer term.

However, to the point of the post, I was looking for anyone who has experience of this (or similar) and how you managed it?

 

[Ginn]

Bump

 

[Chloe-V]

I'm really interested in this post as I've got a 3 year old that's developed what sounds very similar to yours - started earlier this year.

When she sweats she breaks out in what looks similar to a nettle rash all over.

My vet started off by asking me to use weak hibiscrub washes which I did but they didn't stop it.
If she keeps doing this we'll have an issue putting tack on her and we'll some need long term ideas.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

I'm not convinced that you've got the cause and effect the right way round. I would have thought it more likely that whatever has caused the horse to sweat profusely was the end result/visible sign of an underlying hives reaction to something else, or even an auto-immune problem.

 

[Ginn]

Chloe - glad I'm not the only one!

BoxofFrogs - While I'm not discounting this I'm still fairly sure it is the sweat/overheating that is causing the problem. She doesn't sweat profusely (no more than any other horse I've had) and sweats in the normal places and pattern (in terms of where and when sweat develops, starting on girth and saddle patches, then extending to neck and shoulders etc). We've tried washing all her rugs and saddle pads in various things to rule out a soap allergy (this was first thought) and it only happens when she sweats up due to work (or on the very odd occasion the weather catches me out and she is over-rugged when she will break out in a rash but less twitching). Work and getting hot when doing so are definitely the triggers and often she will twitch/shake/thrash without a rash even appearing. We did consider tying up but further investigations with vet seem to have ruled this out and it would have been a long shot as not classic presentation... The thing that causes her to sweat is the exercise and/or heat which in turn triggers the reaction. When she is hacked and doesn't work enough to sweat up/is very cold outside then we don't have any problems. Happens regardless of whether she is ridden and gets sweaty, is lunged and gets sweaty or even spends half an hour hoolying around the field and gets sweaty but as I said its not profuse sweat but what you would expect for the exercise that caused it, air temp and fitness (I admit she could be fitter in that she isn't eventing fit buts she's not unfit either for the work that she does).

The fly reactions definitely don't help but she can get bitten by flies when not sweated up and have no symptoms other than a hives type reaction from the bites (i.e. not sweating or twitching/shaking/thrashing) - she just seems particularly hyper sensitive to them when sweaty as well.

Hope that explains it a little better.