Urticaria

The Bouncing Bog Trotter

The Bouncing Bog Trotter

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Any suggestions or help would be great......

My 2 year old warmblood filly has now had 3 episodes of urticaria in the last 2 months. She is stabled at night and is turned out each day. She wears rugs without neck covers both in and out. When the rash appeared first time she was given a steroid injection and the rash cleared up within 2 days. Her routine and feeds etc were unchanged as we hoped it was a one off episode (perhaps caused by the temperature suddenly rising from freezing to about 6 degrees).

After the 2nd episode she was again given a steroid injection and the rash cleared up within 48 hours. As we now realised this could be an ongoing problem we moved her onto paper/cardboard bedding and cut out all hard feed giving hay ad-lib. Now just under 1 week later the rash is coming back. As we hadn't yet started gradually introducing feed we guess that it is not food related. She has remained on the same hay (same supplier) and stayed in the same field (electric fencing with no hedge). No other horses at the yard have shown a similar problem. Could she have developed a hay allergy?

As the rash always comes up on her neck first, and then spreads over her body I am inclined to think that it may be exposure rather than ingestion related. What are other peoples' experiences? I am reluctant for her to have another steriod injection as it can cause laminitis.

We are due to move to a new yard in early March - I wonder if we should try a total change of environment and move her earlier??

Also current YO thinks it may be hormone related as she is quite a flirty mare and hasn't sorted out her seasons yet. Anyone come across this as a cause before??

At a bit of a loss as we thought the bedding change and diet would solve the problem.....can you shed any light on the matter?

Thanks for reading...
 
This is tricky. I've only ever come across it being food related.

When you changed the bedding did the stable get a really good scrub down? Could there be residual grain there? Also around the door of her stable (thinking mybe contact from having her head over her door!)

Just read that it can possibly be caused by a viral infection!!!

Good luck.
 
This is such a difficult thing to deal with. First off, even though the lumps disappear that doesn't mean that sensitivity has gone, it has just been masked, so you might need to look into longer term use of antihistamine (safer than steroids) until you have a longer spell without a flare up.

Any environmental change can induce this, it could have been repainting of stables or fences, something growing in the pasture, this could have been weeks ago - that has set up the sensitivity. Urticaria also tends to show up when stress levels are high.

You could try adding nettle tea to her feed, or pouring it over the hay, it does help in some cases
 
Thanks for the ideas...

CracklinRosie - no we didn't do a box scrub down (slapping my wrist) but as we are in barn stables I think anything airbourne would get to her anyway. I did wonder about mould but as the other half of her barn is used to store about 500 bales of hay and straw I guess I am stuffed on that one!

Motherhen- thanks for the stress suggestion. Her turnout is restricted at the moment due to weather and she is not getting as much as would be ideal. I bet this has elevated her stress levels just as much as the weather and state of the fields has elevated mine! I've discussed antihistamines with the vet and he can prescribe but would rather find out the cause so I can avoid it in future. I know we may never find the cause but I'd like to try.
 
Is there an isolation box you could try her in? If she does have a bad allergy then living in a barn situation may not be suitable! Not ideal.

If she is very sensitive then even some contact with one of the other horses could have triggered it and as Motherhen says, it may have been lurking.

If your vet is any good, get them back and pick their brains too. Maybe suggest a blood test for raised hormone levels and possible virus.

Good luck.
 
There isn't a direct viral link as far as I am aware (and I have researched the subject thoroughly - I have chronic urticaria myself), however it is true to say that sensitivity seems to go up in relation to stress factors, and a virus could be one of those.

Another point is to be very careful how you handle those lumps and bumps, extremes of heat and cold can make them worse (so no cold sponging), water at just below body heat is kinder and don't be tempted to put anything on them.

Even aloe vera gel, which is considered to be soothing, contains Salicylates which can be a common cause of urticaria
 
Bloods been done and nothing is elevated. In her little world nothing has changed (apart from the weather). Vet doing a hormone test to see if anything is indicative but we delayed on this as is expensive and thought we'd try the diet route.

Our vet has been great over this - new to practice and a breath of fresh air! As we are moving to a new yard in early March he has suggested that I go now - no barn stables, much more turnout and more laidback environment. Just need to tell YO!
 
My old mare used to get this every spring when she moved to her summer grazing, after about 3 weeks in the field 1 side of her would just be a load of bumps.
The vet said there was something in the field that grew at that time of year that she would lie in and have an allergic reaction to.
So before you look at the food and bedding, think about the field she is in, as you say it starts on her neck and when she is rolling in the field this would be the part not covered by the rug.
It is worth asking your vet.
 
My mare gets this pretty regularly to be honest, I think hers is caused by slight variations in the haylage
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I just keep feeding whatever it is that is causing it and it seems to go down within a few days (she has it at the moment).

She has had steroid injections when it has been really bad, but that was only once and it has never come back with such vigour since!

One thing someone recommended to me was Flower of Sulphur which acts as a natural antihistimine to them... She is on it full time now (she is terrible in summer with fly bites) and I have noticed a difference. Yours is not chestnut by any chance is she???
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VERY chestnut - to the point of being almost red......

Where do you get the Flower of Sulphur from?? I did wonder about letting her work through it as she was not itching or in discomfort but she just looks so sad and bumpy. Hopefully a total change of environment will help.

Thanks
 
Yeah, I worried too because Grace looked such a mess (when she went for colic surgery they panicked because she was really bad, but they had started her back on Alfa A which seemed to be a big cause of it!).

I get the flower of sulphur from my feed merchant (it was actually him who recommended it when she kept coming up in horrendous bites through the summer months and then I just kept using it because of the lumps).

I have tried all different types of bedding, non made any difference at all... so just stick to Bedmax now because it is completely dust free
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my horse has had ongoing allergy probs for 6 months now...got a referal to newmarket, and she is going there on monday to have the intradermal allergy testing done.

we have gone through every change poss to see if we can find out what is wrong, but to no avail!

they can suddenly develop allergies, so although you may not have changed anything she could still be allergic to something she has access to. would defo say move sooner if poss, and see what happens. would also swap your hay, what sort of hay is it? if you know the grass type you should swap to a different one. i swapped to different type of hay, that didnt work, so went onto ryegrass haylage, then at least you know its only one type of grass, could also try timothy. well done for cutting out all hard feed, would stick with that (mines had no feed now for 6 months! not a happy bunny) and also be so strict about no treats WHAT SO EVER, make sure all other liveries know, otherwise it is pointless not feeding.

also just in case it is a contact thing was what ever rugs are touching her, with only water, no washing powder/softner. i brought a new full neck under rug for mine so i knew it wasnt contaminated. Would also bath all over with hypo allergenic shampoo, vet suggested baby shampoo which i used.

may also be worth spraying allover with frontline just in case, and have skin scraping done by vet, its not that expensive (<£100 in all) and if prob continues skin biopsies.

vet has told me itching cant be hormone related, however, hair loss could be. not sure about the bumps.

if she is in an american barn, whilst your bedding changing may make a difference, the spores of others bedding are still around, so could still be a prob. has anyone else had new bedding recently?

if you think it may be a contact reaction, i would suggest rugging with full neck rug day and night (obviously cleaned, but not with powder, maybe buy a new cheap one as i did) to see if that helps.

it takes up to 6 weeks for feed traces to get out of system, so you have to leave any changes 4-6 weeks to see an improvement, and a reaction can stay for up to a week from one 'episode'

pm me if you have any other q's, as have done stupid amounts of reading on this!!
 
oh, and just to add would not start feeding her anything, as thats just anothr thing she could be allergic to, i would suggest you are better of trying to find what is causing the problem rather than masking it.

if it is a constant reaction (always annoying her) you could try a course of anti histamines from the vet, although the vets say soemtimes they work sometimes they dont, i think they did on mines first course, not the second. or a course of steriods.
 
What great anwers - thank you all so much for the input!!

I will see what a total change of environment does for her. I will get her roughed off asap and out as much as possible. Will also keep her off feed and try and source a single grass hay/haylage.....

Lizzie87 - will PM you as it sounds like you've done the reading I now need to do....
Thanks again
 
I have this problem too.
We cut out everything we could and the vet was fairly sure it was food related.
Finally we had tests done at the Royal Veterinary college a couple of weeks ago and the lumps vanished overnight while he was there.
From that they concluded that it couldn't be food as that would still have been in his gut but must be environmental and recommended moving yards after a weeks trial stay at the new yard.
As he is on box rest I have with their agreement left any thoughts of moving till we know if he comes sound and what his future is. The lumps while unsightly don't bother him.

The tests showed reactions to 15 items some of which are virtually impossible to avoid in the english countryside.
Keeping things very simple, no rugs, just timothy haylage and straw.
They advised keeping a diary grading the lumps between 1 and 10 and listing everything he has eaten, environment and weather conditions.
I am also trying Global Herbs restore and immunoplus which someone here had good results with. Too early to say if that helps as it's only been 4 days though they looked better last night.
Vets told me that allergies do develop for no known reason in young horses - you don't see them in foals or in older horses without a history so at 5/6 he was at the classic age to develop this.

Yes the injection of Dex does clear them overnight but as soon as it is no longer in their bloodstream it they come back ( between 7 and 10 days I found)
Anti histimines (Ucerax) didn't help at all.

Good luck.
 
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