sweetitch, laminitis & possible EMS

[sam1984]

i have a mini pony who suffers from sweetitch. i have tried every lotion and potion, rugs and electric fencing. i spend alot of time trying to do everything i can for her. one year its her mane and tail, the next its her neck and the next year its her face, ears, udders, belly and legs. i managed to even save her mane and tail this year. i fenced off the metal trough as was rubbing her face on it so every day i fill up 3 large water tubs as there are more than one horse in the field. so she rubs her face on the plastic but its softer than the metal. she then discovers that to conquer the itchy neck and face, she uses her hind hoofs. she has now rubbed her mane out with her hoofs. shes only about 9years old.
she is needle shy so injections would not be helpful.
she also suffers laminitis which i try my hardest to keep away. i have had her sectioned off but this stresses her out which brings on sweat and stress which attract the midges and brings about laminitis. she doesnt normally get fed but she had to have metaformin tablets so needed handfuls of happyhoof.
i have to add that i always kept her slim and trim, until i put her on loan and when i went to visit her, she was in a right state, overweight and leaning back on her feet!! so i took her home the next day. this was back in march this year.
she started acting a bit odd a couple of months ago and some symptoms of EMS appeared.
she is a companion pony for my 16.2 mare. im at a private location, not at a livery yard and i dont live next to my horses.
she is so unhappy now. is still itching. the vet has given me 2 weeks of steroids on low dose to try and braek the cycle and this is the last resort as i know steroids are no good for a pony with laminitis.
i dont really have a question, i dont know why im typing this. maybe if theres anyone out there who is or has had this experience? many thanks for reading

 

[WelshD]

The steroids should help enormously. Tablets and an injection have helped my pony enormously, I know your pony is needle shy but the injections are quite long lasting so its worth discussing that with your vet to find out if mild sedation before injection is viable and cost effective - not sure if the injection is steroid or anti histimine based though

Someone I know swears by one Aldi antihistimine tablet a day in feed but I havent tried this myself

Some advice I posted on a similar thread:

Anything oily on the mane will help as mites dont like biting through oil, I alternate Neem oil and Supreme Products mane and tail restorer

Brewers Yeast powder in the food as others have suggested

My vet suggested Deosect insect repellant which is very good and very strong, you dilute it so a bottle lasts ages

A decent sweet itch rug would work wonders too as when a horse is bitten it doesnt always scratch where the bite is (hope that makes sense!)

 

[sam1984]

i have tried all the oils on the market, she has sweetitch rugs, more than 2.
i spoke to my vet and she explained the procedure with the injections and she reckons this would not help my gorgeous girl. i could deal with the sweetitch and the laminitis but now has equine metabolic syndrome and now im finding this to much to cope with, as is my little pony. she will only be on steroids for 2 weeks to break the cycle of discomfort.
i feed her global herbs, scratch, she likes it but doesnt work and shes been on it for 2 months now.
her diet needs to be more than tweaked.
she needs rubbish quality hay but my 16.2 needs good quality hay.
she used to gallop around the field all the time but now she mopes around, never trots even though shes lost weight and is now a respectable weight.
ive had her since she was born so i have a record of all her changes every year and she just gets worse and worse. i spend many hours a day with her.
the vet knows her very well and have never had problems calling vet out at weekends. the cost is high but its the least of my worries.
ive thought of rehoming her to someone who has better facilities than me but healthy ponies are struggling to get homes let alone one who has 3 big health issues.

 

[BEVol]

We have ahorse with SI which at 2 was just beyond belief. She is now 5 and we have her SI under control by using a drug prescribed by our vet called Cavalesse. It is a small volume of liquid which we give orally every day, starting in Feb/March and the difference has been amazing, she has competed in search for a star and none would have realised she was being treated for SI.

We also use liquid paraffin on the affected areas (before any breaks appear) then we use the topical cavalesse. Both relieve the itch but we don't put on face durong day as being oil based we don't want to cook her skin.

Alternatively there is a fab product called Neem (PureNeem), there is a cream called salvation which helped when our mare was first diagnosed. It disables the mouth parts of the midge, it smells of peanut (huge deterrent to the midge) which is one of the reasons why we don't use it as much now, it is also quite greasy but very very effective. We bought it from a seller on ebay who is very knowledgeable.

I hope this helps. It can be soul destroying at times but with the cooler days upon us the maintenance should be easier.

 

[SuseP]

Poor pony! Have you tried benzyl benzoate for the sweetitch?

 

[BlackVelvet]

Until recently I have never thought of a link between sweetitch and EMS/lami but i guess it makes alot of sense.

My horse had severe sweeitch when I bought him, I had to hog his mane as he was in such a state due to his last owners shoving him out in a field and leaving him to be eaten alive.

It took me years to work out an effective management plan for it, I found that keeping his mane and tail as clean as possible (no special shampoo i just used a cheapy brand) and then applying Coopers fly spray worked. And also a Rambo Sweeitch Hoodie worked wonders, he had to to wear this 24/7 but it changed his life! Full mane and tail all summer, if he ever did get bitten I would hibi scrub the bite and apply suducrem to help!