URGENT HELP needed please any ideas :(

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thatsmygirl

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My 2 yr old has been in a boett rug for quite some time now but has it off in the stable to brush him. Well a midge must off bit him when I was grooming him last night. This morning iv been to check him and he's ripped his boett in pieces and wreaked his tail. I mean no hair and dug holes out and bleeding. Iv had to put him in the stable where at the mo he's quite happy and not itching like in the field ( midges are stupid here at the mo) I know what damage they can do to themselves and am a experienced owner but this is really upsetting me. Iv left him plastered with sudocream and pig oil all over his areas that need it.
Now I can't rug him if he's going to rip it stright off, and tbh can't keep buying rugs like this, he's 2 yrs old and wreaked 2 boetts beyond repair.
What can the vet do? I'm going to ring them Monday to see what options there are but any ideas welcome.
Also what can I use on him now to help stop the itch and make him comfy? Bareing in mind he's bleeding and red raw now and weaping.
I was thinking lots off sudocream and than lots off vasaline?
Any ideas please put forward I really could sit and cry.
Diet is as below
fast fibre
hi fi unmollased
yea sacc
mirco linseed
naf general purpose
mag oz
naf itchless ( whatever it's called, in the feed supplement)

I'm at my witts end :(
 
I had a horse like this the boet is great but very expensive to "RIP UP" poor you I washed mane and tail every couple of days and kept very very clean also I added Benzyle bendate into his fly spray and also wiped it on tail and mane I seem to think you can get a new tablet for this sweet itch google and look up. I have a 2 year old and couldn't comprehend doing this but would to keep him bug free also stable him at the bad time for midgies and just put out at night hope this helps you good luck .
 
The only thing you can do is to make sure he can't get against anything to rub, setting up an electic fenced area inside the field so that he can't get to the fences or trees might help to save your rugs.

Benzyl benzoate (available from hyperdrug) is good to use to kill the midges and soothe sore skin.

I'd also ask the vet about using antihistamines, we had to give one Piriton which helped.

Another thing to consider is to possibly try to find grazing in a different area with fewer midges, one horse my dad has was moved to the coast and has no sweet itch symptoms at all now after rubbing himself raw. Not the most practical, but if you are low lying or on wet ground it is a nightmare to deal with.

Forgot to add that a low sugar diet can help some horses, so maybe try restricting grazing and feeding soaked hay for a while?
 
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Do you know anyone who is handy with a sewing machine? I have put back together what appears to be piles of rags many times to resemble rugs. Not pretty repairs but functional. Might be possible.

Other things that might help if you can do them depending on your set up

Electric fence all round his paddock so nothing to rub on.
Benzyl benzoate on affected parts (not on broken skin thought)
I think the rambo hoody is made of a tougher fabric but doesn't cover in quite the same way as the boette
My mare itches more in the stable so I avoid stabling her when I can.
Wash affected parts regularly I use a coal tar shampoo .... it's designed for itchy scalps in humans

The diet you have for your boy is similar to my mares. This year I have used fast fibre instead of a chaff she isn't itchy yet. I did read somewhere that alfalfa can cause itchyness in some horses and have to wonder if no longer having it in her diet has helped. The jury is out on that one at present.
 
My friend on our yard has a pony with really bad sweet itch....was so bad a couple of years ago she considered pts. She has a lotion she puts on now, pony stinks of it but so far this year still has a mane! This is used in conjunction with his boet rug and a daily medication he has. I will get the names for you as I am not sure what they are.
She has also just fitted an electric fan in his stable as apparently midges and flies can't fly in a wind of over 5mph so the fan keeps his stable free of biting critters.
Her pony is like a different pony this year and can do so much more since he is not constantly itching and red raw. Her medication is expensive but worth it for her pony.
 
Thanks guys :)
I'm going to ring the vet Monday for advise.
He seems less bothered in the stable and hasn't rubbed since being in there, happy eatting. So will try stabling him by day and turn him out late at night.
Ha could I give him one piriton touchstone? He's a 13hh highland, wouldn't hurt to try would it?
I tried BB last year but seemed alergic to it and his tail now is gone and boiling hot and red raw and weeping bad.
Just off to buy some more sudocream and vasaline
while he's bad would a cheap basic fly rug help until I can get the itch under control?
Iv repaired the boett so many times it's stupid but just can't buy him another one. I'm going to buy a Rambo in the winter with the liner and he will have to live in that 24/7 with the boett belly piece on but until I can now control this itching there really isn't any point buying one for him to wreak over 1 night. So was thinking off a cheap masta zing untill I can see what I can do with this boett AGAIN ;) bloody horses. I know the masta won't help the sweetitch but I'm thinking just to keep the midges at bay over night the best I can instead off leaving him bare
 
You must be at your wits end. Have you tried any alternative therapies? I mean like kinesiology where you send off a hair sample to test what may benefit your horse herbal wise/supplement wise or aromatherapy wise? Personally I would try another avenue - you have nothing to lose. PM me if you want me to recommend soemone. I am just going this route with my horse who has concussive laminitis and is not improving.
 
thatsmygirl said:
Thanks guys :)
I'm going to ring the vet Monday for advise.
He seems less bothered in the stable and hasn't rubbed since being in there, happy eatting. So will try stabling him by day and turn him out late at night.
Ha could I give him one piriton touchstone? He's a 13hh highland, wouldn't hurt to try would it?


I don't think one piriton tablet will do much tbh, I think we used to have to give about 20 tablets :eek: to a 15.2hh heavyweight cob. Can't remember off hand, but it did stop him itching but did seem to make him drowsy, so wouldn't recommend riding, as an emergency fix it did help though. Your vet will be best to advise. It might be a lower dose that won't cause drowsiness would be useful.
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Oh well iv just brought some piriton :)
iv got a warm wash down area so will bath him tonight, what's the best thing to wash his tail with? Bareing in mind it's red raw and dig to pieces. Before I cream him up
 
Wash in something very mild like baby shampoo.

The current research is looking at lettung SI horses get a slightly higher worm burdern. Not enough to harm, but worms supress the immune reaction, so may prevent the extreme reaction to bites. In a sumilat vein thats why some people try piriton. If he is as bad today as I read your post, I would call the vet, to talk even if between you, you decide not to get the vet out. I am a bit concerned about you using piriton without vet advice, just incase there is a problem with piriton and whatever the vet can do (steroid injection?).

If its still available, a product called liquid gold was a godsend to me. Its very similar to vaseline, I found it best to do sore spots in sudocrem and liquid gold EVERYWHERE the midges could possubly bite.

Some people have had success treating with homeopathy, you could see if there is a local homeopathic vet or if not havr a google what to use.
 
Get some calamine & aqueous cream from pharmacy 2 put on & hopefully wil help with itch & cool skin down a bit
 
I second the Rambo Sweetitch Hoody, they're made of much tougher stuff and they are light coloured so reflect the heat away from the horse.
 
Cant help with the rest but wind certain does work.

At our old yard it was over 5mph all year round (top of a big hill above a wind farm) Sweet itch was never a problem for any of the horses, even those with cronic sweet itch in the past.

Also fields without standing water, trees, weeds etc. Bare grazing seems less attractive to them.

Good luck
 
Thanks guys, I will get a sweetitch Rambo once he's got over this itchy session.
I get so upset by it, when you try your best but I find him so irratated by it like this.
I'm gona try some barrier anti itch shampoo tonight and iv got a big pot off sudocream plus vasaline. He's going to be a giant blog off cream later.
 
Tea tree shampoo helps I believe. After washing I also sprayed a pony I looked after with a mild antisceptic spray where he had sores then plastered in Sudocream, seemed to work for him. Best of luck. X
 
Poor pony, its awful to watch them scratch themselves raw.

We just sold our last sweet itcher last year, but the following used to help ours a lot...

Our 13.2 had six or seven piriton a day on midgey days, four on normal sunny days (our chemist sold pots of 500 for £7 especially for horse owners!).

A sweet itch hoody worked well - always have two, so one can dry out while the other one is on in wet weather - this was the danger time, as they got cold with wet hoodies on, but if you took them off the migdges got in..

Aloe vera gel rubbed into manes and tails seemed to stop the mad urge to itch.

When they went out he had a Equimins biting insects cream put all along their crests and tops of tails. We also used this when riding out - a time that people often forget to treat them..

We did get a lotion from the vets, but it didn't work that great, and was expensive. He also gave us a sterroid cream one time that cleared it up well - we had qualified for some champiohsips and one pony rubbed raw the week before.

Prevention is better than cure - the ponies knew when the midges arrived well before we did. Sweet itch rugs were on from the end of Feb to the end of Oct quite often.

We found having the sweet itch ponies in at night better than in during the day - the midges are about more at dusk and dawn, which is very late and very early if you're trying to get them in before/after..

Good luck, it can be managed - you just have to find whats good for your horse.
 
I have a fellow the same, if I keep him rugged it is not an issue, but because he has had the rug off, now every rug is ripped to shreds in a few days. In the past sorbelene massaged into mane and tail every day stopped himitching. Now I am using sorbolene, but also some times olive oil. His skin seems less itch and sore when this is kept up regularly and his tail grows back. But cannot really stop this until he is ruggable again, and not itch at all.
 
He's been shampoo and creamed up tonight with sudocream and has a Rambo hoody on with boett belly piece and boett hood. If he breaks this rug I give up. But he went out in the field without going to his itching area so that's good. No sharp bits anywhere I can find so fingers xd.
 
last year, my ponys sweet itch was really bad and she had the sweet itch injection from the vet. i think the injection is still in trials, but it seemed to work on her and stopped her itching :)
 
xxKatxx said:
last year, my ponys sweet itch was really bad and she had the sweet itch injection from the vet. i think the injection is still in trials, but it seemed to work on her and stopped her itching :)
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Is this the injection developed by the sweet itch centre? Or is it the steroid injection do you know? Sorry OP - not meaning to high jack but I am watching this thread like a hawk in case of any 'new' theorys on best management etc.
 
We too have found in at night, out during the day helps hugely. So then they're in over dusk and dawn when the midges are worst. You can hang fly strips in the stable too. Never have the rug off when there are midges around, and fly spray as soon as it comes off with something citronella or deet based. Rambo sweet-itch hoody is nice and robust so hopefully it'll do the trick for you. Our last one lasted 4 years and we only bought a new one because the lining on the mane part had gone, so it was rubbing her mane!
 
My friends pony had piriton daily and it made a huge difference, combined with a good fly rug, and im sure it was brewers yeast in her feed, she went from rubbing continually and no mane with big sores to something you could show
 
my friends horse suffers really bad, she tried the injections and they didnt work so the vet recomended something called cavaless, it comes in a sachet and u mix it with water and give to the horse the same time every day and its been working really well :)
 
Does anyone else think that sweetitch seems to vary from horse to horse? What works with one horse won't work with another? Or maybe it's different midges or other irritants in different areas...
My friend has had great success with Ruggles. She says it's pricey and it stinks, but she's hardly using her pony's Boett at all. I'm interested in trying the Piriton tablets I must admit, so many of these remedys seem so expensive! I've used all sorts of lotions to soothe the itched bits, but decided Sudocreme works as well as anything.
 
Sudocream contains benzyl benzoate (one of the reasons it is so useful for sweet itch sufferers) so be aware of this if he reacted to BB in the past. The supermarket versions often don't contain it so might be an alternative if you need one (however be aware that some of them contain peanut traces but don't state it in the ingredients, tescos definitely does - as my severely allergic friend unfortunately found out). Another alternative you could try is aloe vera gel to soothe his tail.

Have you tried marmite? (In feed, not to put on wounds). It isn't a problem solver but may decrease the issue. I would definitely look into the cavalesse injection.

I have found the absorbine fly spray to be fantastic. It is marketed as a stable spray rather than for on the horse as some of the ingredients are not EU approved for use on horses but I have used it on many horses without a problem. Or you could try the new naf off tags? Attach one to the tail of his rug (or possibly plait one into his tail and keep a close eye on him until you think he's happy with it) which might help a little. A client of mine uses diluted dettol (idea from her farrier) in an area with lots of midges, but I don't know the dilutions and would be making sure I tested it on a small area. The human 'jungle formula' repellent is super too, but more expensive.
 
The cavaless my friend is trying at the mo so watching with interest.
Grumpyoldmare, any questions etc to help anybody with a pony with swetitch is not hyjacking it's helping so carry on :)
I must say I'm interested in the piriton as well so will ask my vet on Monday and tesco cheap ones are the same going by the ingrediants and 80p for 14
 
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