Sweet Itch/Allergy management?

mynutmeg

mynutmeg

Well-Known Member
Joined
5 February 2011
Messages
3,084
Location
Cumbria
Visit site
My 6 year old mare has developed full sweet itch this summer (she's been itchy before but never this bad). She's also had some sort of reaction which left her with a badly sunburnt nose (3 weeks ago when there was no sun!) with blisters and splits all over her muzzle, she's got a big patchy or scalely, flaking skin on her shoulder where something bit her (through her rug), she did have big lumps there although those have gone down. She's now developed swelling around her eyes. Vet was up to see her today and we have an anti-biotic/anti-fungal wash to prevent any secondary infection in any rubs, steroid cream for around her eyes to try and reduce the swelling and bute.
Management wise she's in a proper boet style rug which is fab, she's stabled on hot still days or any day the flies are bad (they're pretty bad at my yard, mainly the big black cattle flies), is on the global herbs scratch plus (just started) and sprayed with lots of bug spray and I also use the NAF Ditch ointment on exposed areas such as her udders and any itchy spots as it has the benzyl benzoate in it.
She keeps having these weird reactions, such as her eyes, on top of the normal itchiness and I'm at a loss as to what else I can do to help her.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
 
Skratch plus is amazing. You wouldn't know my girl has it and last year her lega and face were open and bleeding etc. I have to feed in a marmite sandwich though!

I had her allergy tested but found it a waste of time. So many false positives and it showed no allergy to midges!! Yet she was allergis to trees, dust, mould, cockroahes and the list goes on. I ja her serum tested but it just isnt reliable enough at all. You end up witbh a whole host more problem and it still doesn't change your management. If you can have her tested by injection I think that's more reliable (shave a patch and then they look for reaction lumps).

However I would have a read up on pemphigus foliaceous. Or pm me. It's what my girly has - it's an auto immune disease - but don't be scare mongerd by the information - it's much more common than is thought - often goes mis diagnosed as sweet itch and mud fever. My beautiful girl started with a big swelling between her legs and then her hair started to fall out in clumps - she went totally bald and has now regrown all her hair and is back in ridden work after several months. I think it is under diagnosed a lot, but equally it is quite rare.
 
I am starting to think there may be something more than sweet itch as she's still really itchy despite being in a proper sweet itch rug (the same rug has made a huge difference to our other cob who also has sweet itch and is not itchy at all in the rug).

The swelling above her eyes is slightly improved but she's still got a mild runny nose (not infection type, just clear runny nose) but she's as itchy as ever.

Am wondering if we should be doing some blood work and allergy testing to see if there's anything else going on.
 
I had my boy allergy tested a few years ago and it did show he has sweet-itch plus he's allergic so loads of other stuff. The immunotherpy didnt work on him so I bought him a Snuggy Hoods sweetitch set. Its now on its third summer. Since I bought it I gave up plastering him with creams potions and sprays as I manged to convince myself they could be adding to his problems with him being allergic to allsorts (I think he was allergic to half the stuff I fed him and coated him with) I would have him allergy tested, it really helped me in as far as what to avoid.

He doesnt get fed anything special (costs far far too much and doesnt help enough).

Just cover your horse from head to toe from March till November and you should be ok. If not then you definately need veterinary help.
 
i would also recomend the allergy testing
poppys the same i have to put a fly mask over her snuggys as her eyes swell up when she comes in to contact with what she has allergys to.
i found thought the best thing for her was keep washing her eyes with cold water as soon as i bathed her eyes in cold water the swelling would be down 20 mins later,
with her shes on immune therpy its helped a bit but not 100%
and with her snuggys rug shes also got an udder pad
with her she was allergic to loads of things including a chemical in fly spray
all cereals, daisys, nmidges, black ants , fire ants, and load sof tree and grass pollens too much to mention

page 5 is what they tested mine for they tested her for every thing
http://www.greendale.co.uk/pdf/allergy_immunotherapy_testing.pdf

http://www.greendale.co.uk/allergy_testing.html
 
I feel really sorry for all these horses bundled up like parcels all summer long. What's going wrong? It never used to be like this. I blame artificial feeding - horses stuck in postage stamp paddocks with hardly any variety of herbs and grasses or fed with processed artificial foods. I think modern horse keep is to blame having moved too far away from what horses would naturally choose to eat.
 
There's definately something going on although it's thought there may be soemthing genetic as it seems to be more prominent in certain breeds so that may be a contributing factor to the increase in cases of sweet itch and other allergies. Certainly, to my knowledge and since I've had her, she's never been on any hard feed only fibre - she's a podgy cob.

I agree with you about them being bundled - there's nothing I'd love more than to be able to chuck her out without anything on and let her go and roll and get filthy. We try to get them a week or two in the spring and autumn once the weather is good enough and before or after the bugs are bad where she gets out without anything on. We also try to get both our cobs time together with nothing on in a stable so they can have a good groom session - that's their faviourite past-time, they'll even try and groom if being ridden! It's really funny.
 
Try taking her off grass. I took my navicular rehab off grass and his sweetitch (bad enough to need rugs indoors and out) disappeared completely. Don't feed carrots either, I have a friend with a horse which itches on carrots.
 
i am guessing you don't feed garlic if you do stop as more people have found this to have a detremental effect on sweet itch, i have also found removing all molasses and any other extra sugars including carrots from the diet worked well. some chaffs have added in so have a look at the recipie.
 
mynutmeg said:
There's definately something going on although it's thought there may be soemthing genetic as it seems to be more prominent in certain breeds so that may be a contributing factor to the increase in cases of sweet itch and other allergies. Certainly, to my knowledge and since I've had her, she's never been on any hard feed only fibre - she's a podgy cob.

I agree with you about them being bundled - there's nothing I'd love more than to be able to chuck her out without anything on and let her go and roll and get filthy. We try to get them a week or two in the spring and autumn once the weather is good enough and before or after the bugs are bad where she gets out without anything on. We also try to get both our cobs time together with nothing on in a stable so they can have a good groom session - that's their faviourite past-time, they'll even try and groom if being ridden! It's really funny.
Click to expand...

Well you seem to be doing everything possible to give your horses a proper horsey life within the constraints of your yard. Your horses are lucky.
It makes me sad when I'm driving through the countryside down here in the South and passing yard after yard where horses are in tiny manicured paddocks, deprived of being able to self-medicate on herbs, covered up so they don't get the benefits of the Sun - and yes there are many benefits to them just like there are for us.
I guess the landowners are making good economical use of their land and both they and the feed industry are making a decent income from horse owners but I can't help worrying about the future for our horses.
 
Also there is an aricle about photosensitisation in a horsey mag at the moment - saw it and thought of this thread - but something else to think about :)

Sadly, my ponies is one of those ponies rugged to the hilt in a small 1/3 acre paddock :( I moved her to an overgrown 3 acre field where she lived out and did everything as back to basics as we could... And it failed epically. Fundamentally my welsh mountain pony is just that - built to survive on harsh mountains with little grazing. How I wish I could have some in Manchester! She is on the side of a hill/mountain (pennines) but even still the grass is too rich.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top