Sweet Itch - clip or not?

[Equi]

My mare has extremely thick skin on her tail head and mane. Ive been keeping mostly on top of it in that shes not bleeding this year vs last year but has noticeably rubbed the hair off to a spike. Im conflicted about if i should clip the hair off to get to the skin to treat more now the weather is changing or leave the hair as protection and continue to treat as i have been.

 

[horselover11]

I don’t know about clipping but this website has some great tips I didn’t know about when I once loaned a pony with sweet itch a few pointers that really helped in the article.
https://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/advice/health/sweet-itch

 

[C1airey]

I used to clip my sweet-itcher frequently. Sometimes year-round, sometimes in a good year, he’d have a summer coat but he’d be clipped early. They’re itchy enough as it is so as soon as they started the coat change (mine are shedding their summer coats now) I’d clip him. And like you say, it gives you a chance to get down to the skin to treat/assess.

 

[Gloi]

My mare has extremely thick skin on her tail head and mane. Ive been keeping mostly on top of it in that shes not bleeding this year vs last year but has noticeably rubbed the hair off to a spike. Im conflicted about if i should clip the hair off to get to the skin to treat more now the weather is changing or leave the hair as protection and continue to treat as i have been.

More important than clipping or not is preventing her from rubbing in the first place. Use electric fencing to stop her damaging herself.