Sweet Itch Help!

C

Carlanassau

New User
Joined
6 September 2015
Messages
9
Visit site
I have had my pony for a few years now and I'm running out of things to try. We are in a windy area with very little water, he's in a paddock where he can't itch on fences. He has garlic treats and a fly rug. But his sweet itch is still awful. He was abused very heavily before I got him, he still has a lump on his side where his broken ribs never healed. As a result of this he won't let us near him with water or sprays or creams or anything. I've gotten him to trust me with his rug and his headcollar but I hate seeing him covered in scabs and blood. Is there anything I can do to help him that doesn't involve creams or sprays? any advice would be welcome, thank you
 
The first thing is to stop giving him any garlic it is not helpful for sweet itch and may make it far worse, brewers yeast, yeasac or marmite are beneficial and may help, I have not used them but you can by tags impregnated with fly repellent that stay on the headcollar or rug which may be useful as you struggle to put repellent on him.
The other thing would be to target the main areas that the midges bite if you could get him accepting just the back of his front legs, front of his back legs and under the tummy being covered in fly cream that may help as that tends to be where they feed, and it may be easier to get something on those areas.
 
Spray the rug and the headcollar with a good repellant. It won't solve the problem totally, but if he won't let you near him with a bottle of fly spray, it's better than nothing.
 
Thank you. I've actually never seen him with any scabs on his legs or tummy, he tends to get them on his neck and withers and Is definitely not going to be accepting of those areas but I'll give the tags a go as they sound like a good idea. I spray his rug at the moment and he does have marmite but I'll have to try the Brewers yeast or the yeessac. Thanks for the advice.
 
My friend has a cob that suffers and he rubs himself raw. She swears that Tumeric with oil & black pepper has helped alot. Charnwood linseed can be used for the oil bit, just half a tea cup is fine and the linseed is also fab for skin/coat & feet generally. I also have heard a lot of people use Brewers Yeast or marmite. At the moment my friend is also feeding a NAF herbal supplement that has been quite good. Her horse during summer is stabled by day and out overnight to reduce exposure to the flies and midges and has a full body fly rug. Also sugar in feed is not meant to be helpful, so might be worth checking yours to make sure it has no molasses or added bulkers. A simple chaff or dried grass works well. I use Agrobs but there are a few others on the market now that are low in sugars. Horrid thing to deal with, you have my sympathy.
 
Try feeding micronised linseed...it's great for the skin and coat and is anti inflammatory.
Use a specific sweet itch rug...much better coverage and tougher than Fly rugs
If you've got him to trust you with a rug could you work on getting him used to you applying cream...Net Tex Itch Stop is excellent for sweet itch....it soothes and helps healing and repels and you only have to apply it every few days.
When I had a feral,mpreviously abused pony, I set up a small corral off his main paddock to make handling more easy or if you have a stable then set up a crush system so you can apply what you need on him.....a little area where he cannot move or escape. You'll be surprised how calming it can be for them and how sometimes they frighten themselves more of they have somewhere to run to.
The midline and between the back legs and sheath area are the most important areas to keep protected so make sure your rug has a good belly cover on.
If he only rubs his mane and chest areas then consider neck thread worms and make sure it's not something more straightforward like lice or mites
http://thehorsesback.com/neck-threadworms/
 
Last edited:
I currently have a SI mare and I have tried several different approaches. The main things I have found to help is reducing sugars in the diet as much as humanly possible - and also look at removing any alfalfa from the diet. Alfalfa appears to have been one of the main triggers for my horse. She has had Top Spec TopChop Just Grass over winter, and is now onto Top Spec TopChop Zero now. Halley's feeds also do a very good Timothy hay chop for avoiding alfalfa (it is much more difficult than you would imagine to find a chaff without alfalfa in it!!). I have also used Allen & Page Calm and Collected over the winter (not fed at this time of year though)

I tried feeding brewers yeast and micronised linseed, but found them to have limited help. This year, I contacted Alex at Hack Up and have now got her on two seperate supplements - one is primarily a calmer (so potentially unrelated to itching!!) and the second was to address some lumps and bumps she has. Since she has been on this supplement, I have never known her to be so un-itchy as she is right now. She has even had several days out without any rugs on at all and her mane is starting to grow back.

I use premier equine sweet itch rugs on my mare - I have 2 to wash one and wear one. I regularly wash them - they are never left on more than 7 days, 5 days is our average. My rugs are now going into their 4th summer, so well worth their money.

My mare also hates sprays, so I will spray onto the rug rather than the horse. Also, this year I have tried using Coopers repellent. I have only used a small amount - around her face and around her tail (her main rubbing areas) and it does seem to have helped.

I keep expecting her to start scratching in earnest any moment, as the grass has come through with a vengeance, and I do think her diet affects her more than anything else, but so far, very limited scratching :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top