Sweetitch Rug v Benzyl Benzoate & Avon SSS

[Eaglestone]

I am in the process of buying a Sweetitch Rug (fingers crossed

) and want some advise from you peeps who have 'suffered' this condition with your pony/horse

I have always 'slapped' on the Benzly Benzoate & Avon SSS mix and this has kept the rubbing at bay for the last 17 years on my old boy, however he still suffered a very sore forelock and a patch under his belly

If he wears the Sweetitch Rug will I be able to ditch the BB & SSS application

 

[YorkshireLass]

If your system works, why change it?

 

[Nari]

I'd put it on any areas the rug doesn't cover, plus if you ride at midgy times you may need to put something on him then. The rugs really are brilliant for the under belly areas though!

 

[spaniel]

If your boy has already been bitten then the reaction will have already started. I would hang onto the BB and SSS plus use the rug at all times, in and out of the stable.

If there has been no bite yet the Boett should stop this happening.

Im sure you already know but for those who dont, sweetitch rugs do not stop the itching....they stop the initial bite and need to be used from very early on in the year to stop midge teeth meeting flesh. Once your horse has been bitten the rug will only stopmore bites but the itch will already have been activated.

Sorry if Im stating the obvious but youd be surprised how many owners I have come across who moan like hell that their SI rugs 'dont work'. Its always because they wait till half the main and tail has gone before they decide to use them!

 

[Eaglestone]

I have already started using the BB & SSS but over the years, this has started to give him a bad reaction down his neck and I cannot put in near his sheath as that gets so sore

... and as my TB coped well in a Fly rug, I thought that I would give it a go .... TBO I don't like using chemicals

He has worn a full neck combo over this winter, for the first time, and this has until now kept him more or less itch free, (coming into the May - October season!) however when I turned him out last week rugless, he started getting attacked, so it would appear that the rug was keeping things at bay ..... so I thought I would try this technique instead and therefore posed the Q on using the BB etc

 

[Halfpass]

The trouble with BB is that it is actually a skin irritant so if used once the skin is broken can make matters worse. I would continue using on unbroken skin alongside the rug. Have you tried brewers yeast?

 

[Eaglestone]

Hello Halfpass

No I have not heard of a Brewers Yeast treatment for Sweetitch, I also do not know anything about the Marmite theory, so do you know anything on that one as well

Can you tell me

please ..... Mmmm and is it ok for a Cushings horse

 

[samp]

I tried brewers yeast last year and it made my horse itch even more??

 

[darksecret99]

My boy still manages to get bitten where his rug doesnt cover - inside back legs etc, so I use a fly repellant as well as the rug.... and brewers yeast!

I kept eating the marmite at the yard though, so gave up on that!!