Sweet itch - properly named after all?

[cptrayes]

I took on a horse earlier this year who I was told had very severe sweet itch and had to be rugged head to foot inside the stable as well as out. He has scars on his tail which show how badly he rubbed himself and I was told that if he started, he would not stop and he would look like "raw beef". To top it all, he was apparently allergic to benzyl benzoate.

For other reasons, he had to be completely removed from grass, because it was causing him problems. He lived outdoors a lot of the time, just not on grass. After a few weeks I tested benzyl benzoate and he seemed to have no problem with it. But I am in the hills and I thought maybe we just have fewer midges. Since then, he has gone to live at sea level, still regularly outdoors, close to two big sources of water. And still he has no sign whatsoever of sweet itch.

I'm beginning to wonder if "sweet itch" is named properly after all, and that although it is now known to be an allergy to midge bites, for some horses at least the allergy is only present if they also have too much grass sugars??

Anyone else managed to control sweet itch by restricting grass intake?

 

[YorksG]

We didn't restrict grass intake, but stopped all other sugars, particularly all refined sugars, for a number of reasons and had the side effect of the mare in question never having a further incident of seet itch, which up that point she had suffered from each summer. She also lived nest to a river, a mill dam and a wood, so a very rich source of midges. We made the observation then that the old guys who named this disease knew what they were talkng about

 

[cptrayes]

Well how interesting. I wonder how many sweet itch sufferers could be controlled with a look at their sugar intake? I think you are right, there is more to many of the old stories than we understand. It might explain why there seems to be an explosion of sweet itch, co-inciding with an explosion in the feeding of mixes with molasses added to them. When I first had a horse over 30 years ago no commercial mixes were available in my area, and I didn't meet a horse with sweet itch for years, by which time everyone was going mad for the new "muesli" feeds.

 

[Daisychain]

Or maybe the sugars make the blood sweeter! I have had a few with mild sweet itch and a weekly rub of benzyl benzoate has always prevented it. In my case it was definately to do with biting midges aggrevating them.

 

[YorksG]

I have to agree with you, we rarely use commercial branded feeds, prefering to use grass nuts, or other forage based feeds, having had a horse with food intolerances, an over bred rottweiller and both sister and I having them (!) we are very aware of what we feed to what If the feed is not palatable without molasses, then it should not be fed IMO. I do think that many illnesses etc. were noted by careful observation, by people who knew what they were looking at. Horses were then a valuable commodity, and a working partner, not as is sadly so often the case now, a fad and a disposable object. The increase in sweet itch and laminitis apper to be in direct correlation to the increase in feed companies and less knowedlgable owners.

 

[YorksG]

Or maybe the sugars make the blood sweeter! I have had a few with mild sweet itch and a weekly rub of benzyl benzoate has always prevented it. In my case it was definately to do with biting midges aggrevating them.

That was rather the point Daisychain, that the sweetness in the diet makes the animal more attractive to the midges, and may well raise the histamine levels in the blood, thus making a secondry allergic reaction more likely.

 

[ThePony]

That's really interesting, I must admit that it isn't something I had noticed or thought of before. My mare suffers from fairly mild sweet itch - though last year if she was without her rug then if you even stroked her mane she flung her head up because of the itch. She is v sensitive to sugar and is now on no added sugar chaff (no preservatives either), soaked hay and v restricted grass. She is def better with her sweet itch too - I had never linked the two things tbh. Another benefit of less sugar! It never ceases to amaze me what total cr*p some people are happy to feed their horses!! Likit anyone?!!

 

[touchstone]

I'm pretty positive that sugar is a trigger for lots of issues raising their ugly heads. Nowadays the incidence of sweet itch, laminitis and other metabolic disorders seems to be rife. I do wonder though whether there is possibly more to it than just a case of sugar alone; look at how we use herbicides and pesticides, nitrate fertilisers, chemicals and hormones in our water supply, environmental pollutants etc. Years ago these weren't at the levels they are at now and I do think that there has to be a link between environmental factors as a whole and the incidence of allergies/disorders, probably making humans and equines alike more susceptible to the effects of sugar in the diet.

Years ago my grandfather kept horses on rich grass all summer and they were fed whole oats and mollasses when working. I can't remember many cases of laminitis or sweet itch being talked about, although I'm sure they happened, but not in the numbers we seem to see today. Maybe we worked them harder and that helped too.

 

[YorksG]

Absolutely Glosgirl. glad you too have found the benefits of low sugar diet for your horse

 

[YorksG]

I think you are probably right Touchstone, but unfortunately the environmental pollutants are difficult to eliminate, it may well be that the increase in incidence is partly a symptom of a deeper problem, but it is not helped by under worked horses being fed over sweetened commercial feeds, IMO

 

[touchstone]

I agree YorksG; I own a difficult to manage native that has a sugar free diet and very restricted grazing (curently footy so on no grazing at all.) I'm obsessive about reading labels and soaking hay! I cringe watching the neighbouring horse on rich grazing and getting his mollassed cereal and beet every night.

I do wonder about the longer term effects of all the environmental factors though, on humans as well as equines.

 

[Fransurrey]

Hi,

It's long been suspected that excess sugars are a trigger for sweet itch, as certain types of cells in the gut act as the first line of defence against antigens, or 'foreign bodies'. Just as with IBS, certain foods can trigger the auto-immune response. It's why you shouldn't feed garlic to a Sweet Itch horse, as it can trigger the response, rather than help through repelling flies.

I treat Chloe as a laminitic, which is mightily convenient, as Henry has had two mild LGL attacks in the past and so is also treated as one! She's been in a bare paddock since May, with hay (which has been ok unsoaked, but then I'm not giving it ad lib). So far, so good and she's so severe it's even in big letters on her passport!

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Well how interesting. I wonder how many sweet itch sufferers could be controlled with a look at their sugar intake? I think you are right, there is more to many of the old stories than we understand. It might explain why there seems to be an explosion of sweet itch, co-inciding with an explosion in the feeding of mixes with molasses added to them. When I first had a horse over 30 years ago no commercial mixes were available in my area, and I didn't meet a horse with sweet itch for years, by which time everyone was going mad for the new "muesli" feeds.

There def was sweet itch around as its mentioned in some of the old pony books, but interestingly they talk about it when a pony got in the feed room, and now it might get Sweet Itch which they describe as Incurable...fascinating to see the approach back then in these books!

 

[cptrayes]

I know it existed, but in nowhere near the numbers that it does now. Same goes for laminitis. We've got something wrong somewhere, that's for sure!

 

[Jericho]

I am totally buying into all this and have recently taken my horses back to a very simple diet - as sugar free as possible and feed seaweed, brewers yeast, mag ox and biotin with unmollassed rinsed sugarbeet and topspec lite chop. The change was triggered by making the decision to go barefoot with my mare and wanting to do the best by her and I was directed to the UKNHCP forum.

I have to say she is looking fantastic, her feet are strong and never chip, her coat is soft and shiny, her eyes are clear and her droppings are perfect !!! And i am saving money. I guess I am lucky because both of my horses now are very good doers so I dont need high calorie food (and in fact the low/no sugar diet is good for them because of the risk of laminitis) I would really recommend other people to look into it, whether their horses are barefoot or not. I feel in a way that its going back to basics a little as I used to just buy anything recommended with no real thought what was in it and it makes sense to me that horses are unlikely to need a lot of this stuff. Anyway, just my thoughts and I find it really interesting...

 

[cptrayes]

Jericho save some more money. Brewer's yeast is full of the range of B vitamins, and biotin is one of them, so you possibly don't need to feed a biotin supplement.

As a note of caution to others, don't feed seaweed if you are in a high iodine, high iron or high manganese area. Too much iodine is not good and too much iron and manganese prevent the absorption of copper which is used for insulin regulation amongst other things.