Sweet Itch Season

Lancelot

Lancelot

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13 November 2008
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Hi,

I'm new to the forum so hello to everyone!
I hope you don't mind but I have quite a few questions regarding sweet itch remedies...
I was wondering if anyone had used the 'Spray Gold' Deet spray that is advertised on the National Sweet Itch centre's website? If you have, was it any good? Is there a cheaper alternative? Also, can anyone tell me the difference between using DEET or benzyl benzoate? Are they as effective as each other?

Thanks in advance for any help offered!
 
Hi, and welcome!

I can't comment on the Spray Gold or even the difference between deet and benzyl benzoate, but, I can say that I cannot use deet on my sweet itch boy - he's too sensitive for it!! I make my own fly repellent and he has a selection of fly rugs which I alternate to stop any rubbing...
 
Benzyl benzoate is a treatment for bad skin as well as repelling flies. Deet is just a fly repellant. The cheapest BB is from a chemist, about £5 a bottle.
It really depends on the flies as to whether they work to repell them. Different repellants seem to work differently in different areas.
Linseed can help with sweet itch because it makes the skin oily.
 
I have a sweet itch and know how easy it is to throw good money after bad with various "herbal" (and very expensive!) "remedies".

I have found feeding garlic (granules not powder) does help, plus someone told me ages ago that giving your horse a Marmite sandwich is good!! Mine loves the sandwich, but I don't know whether it has helped or not.

I do find that really the only effective solution is one of the proprietory sweet itch rugs that cover the horse completely.
 
I use Benzil Benzoate for my girl and a good rug. I've found the cheapest source for BB to be Chemist Direct online. It is quite hard to get it from normal chemists now for some reason. I also put brewers yeast into her feed (this is a cheap form of vitamin B) which taints their blood and the midges don't like the taste!

I've had people ask me if I'm sure my horse suffers from Sweet Itch as they don't believe it - but if I didn't use the regime they'd see she does.
 
I recommend getting your horse a sweet itch rug to wear in the summer, it works wonders. The Rambo sweet itch hoody works well. Also feeding lots of garlic will help.
 
was not able to stable my pon cos she itched in the doorframe
but
last year i bought a pagony rug.it the only thing that really works and i was able to stable her.i use leccy fencing to stop snags on the hedges.have tried sprays and lotions other years to no avail.
last year we done really well with no rubs.you really have to cover up and get in before the midges come out,(which will be soon)
although the rug was £80 i could have easily spent/wasted that amount on sprays.
 
benzyl benzoate does not repell the flies it does help to kill them though . It used to be used on people to cure scabies but has been superseeded by ther permithrins (contained in the more expensive and more effective remedys such as coopers ). Deet is a very effective fly repellent.

Ideally you would use both.

My old boy gets sweetitch quite bad so lives in a snuggy hoods, I do not find benzyl benzoate makes that much difference even though I get it from work at a bargain price so can afford to slap it on, Deet is more useful in a high a concentration you can find but you do have to keep applying it.

just cheaked the sweeitch website and it more or less says all the above and explains the difference, I like the suggestion of avon skin soft etc, will be trying that as well this year.
 
Had an old cob with sweet itch for about years and BB stopped him getting so sore , only thing that really stopped the flies was snuggy hood rug though , would recomend you buy one they last for ages ( well mine did) well worth the investment!
 
i use net tex fly spray that has deet in it and is very good but dont use to much coz it is quite strong they use deet in the army for when soliders are injured to fkeep the flys away!
 
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