VERY itchy horse but healthy looking coat?

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Nakita

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Well as above really Emma has a lovely shiney coat with no bumps or lumps but she is demented - throws herself at wall, bites herself all the time, sqaushes people trying to get scratched! She acts like a horse with sweet itch but she doesn't have it! It isn't just the flies either the other horses on the yard are itchy but nothing like this!
Has anyone had any experience of skin complaints with horses? What could be causing her to be so itchy but have such a healthy shiney coat - I'm stumped!
 
Sounds rather odd, only one experience similar was with my big mare, coming out of winter when the weather was improving (April time). I had her unrugged 24/7 but she had to be stabled on a night and was too hot in there and rubbed alot, so much so that she rubbed the front of her stable down one night and yard owner finally agreed to let me put her out 24/7 which I'd asked to do before.

This summer she has been itchy too when its been hot and sweaty. Dont know if your horse may be feeling the heat?
 
cinammontoast - she had her first vaccinations last week and while the vet was out I asked their opinion and said I thought it may be mites. They said it is unlikely, they have never seen them in a horse so young before :\ Said we can treat her for them if I want & told me about the injections and spray but said they don't think that's what it is. Told me to bath her as that can make them more comfortable. I was pretty shocked as my vet normally jumps at the chance to jag your horse and take your money! Lol.

ha903070 - I thought it could be that too but it is every single day, regardless of weather & temp that she is itchy so I don't know. Considering asking vet to take a little skin scraping but don't really know if it's worth going down that route!
 
okay, i dont mean to worry you but.... not sure how old emma is, but sounds quite young. my mare from about 1 yr thru to 3 displayed this type of behaviour, manic at times, when she hit 4 she started to scab and it turned out to be sweet itch. whilst she was young she never had scabs or anything henc why we never thought it was SW, but it was in the end
 
Do you feed her carrots, that can do it.

Or she may be a horse that can't tolerater summer grass. Before you scoff, I own one. He is a "severe" sweet itch case before he came to me and has the scars to prove it. But I have him kept off grass for other reasons, and his sweet itch has disappeared. Top Spec also made a horse belonging to a friend of mine very,very itchy.
 
i'll also add that as a youngster whilst displaying this behaviour she always had a full mane and tail and a gleeming coat hence the mis diagnosis
 
Hmm, well Emma is one & I actually wondered if it could be a case of because she is so young she is not showing the full effects of sweet itch. However I don't really understand how this works, why is she not getting the allergic reaction of bumps and scabs just because she is young? Sorry if there is an obvious answer, it just doesn't seem to make much sense to me!
Would a blood test establish if it was sweet itch?
Ibot - she has no bald patches at all which is why her extreme itchyness confuses me :\
 
You often don't see the bumps and scabs with sweet itch. Every sweet itcher I've had has been different. The only thing they had in common was they could scratch for England whenever they had the chance..
 
Lol! Well luckily I have been treating her like she has sweet itch anyway because I was told friesians were prone to it and I noticed how itchy she was. I have been using deet flyspray & avon skin so soft and I have been putting marmite in her feed! I would get her a boett rug but I don't want to spend all that money when she is only one and still growing! Does bathing help sweet itch?
 
If she is out 24/7... is there actually anything she could rub on or is it just an electric fenced field? If she has nothing to rub on it may not be so obvious in that sense (as in, she will still have her mane and tail because she cant rub it off). For horses with nothing to itch against, you can imagine how irritated they could become.
My mare has sweetitch and despite having stuff to rub on in the field, when she comes in and I take her rug off she instantly reverses into the gate and has a good rub. her coat is still lush and shiney though! I would get a blood test done.
 
Yes bathing can help to sooth the skin, there are lots of shampoos out there to use. I cant remember the name of the one I've been using (gallop one I think, for itchy skin) and I'm convinced its helping her tail!
 
Lavender shampoo or tea tree ones are good. We use a human Aloe vera gel for aftersun on the top of the tail and mane line, and find that the sweet itchers do better with an actual midge repellent rather than fly spray. We use rambo sweet itch hoodies on ours - they're about £100, but we've got them on e bay much cheaper (sometimes secondhand) and they do 2-3 seasons, whereas a normal fly rug didn't even do one! You really need a fly rug that goes over their ears so the whole mane is covered. Our vet recently prescribed a sweet itch repellent that you only put on once a week called switch, that seems to be good, but haven't had the bill yet!
 
Honey08 said:
Lavender shampoo or tea tree ones are good. We use a human Aloe vera gel for aftersun on the top of the tail and mane line, and find that the sweet itchers do better with an actual midge repellent rather than fly spray. We use rambo sweet itch hoodies on ours - they're about £100, but we've got them on e bay much cheaper (sometimes secondhand) and they do 2-3 seasons, whereas a normal fly rug didn't even do one! You really need a fly rug that goes over their ears so the whole mane is covered. Our vet recently prescribed a sweet itch repellent that you only put on once a week called switch, that seems to be good, but haven't had the bill yet!
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i have spoken to my vet a couple times and he has not mentioned switch i must bring it up with them.

i use benzo on paddy and neem oil. i also give him brewers yeast and d itch in his feed. i have a rug on him but he has destroyed it so i am not able to sew it little monkey :mad:

paddy is not bald especially compared to when i got him he had a really silly mane but now i can start to see the frieisan coming through although every day seems to be a stressful one :o
paddy seems to scratch more when he is bored does that make sense??

take care
nicky
 
hi what do you feed her? i have a horse with low grade sweet itch, by removing any feed with molasses and garlic his condition has really improved
 
Hi

Whereabouts is your horse itching? Also beware that Avon Skin so soft can cause an abverse reaction as happend to a friends horse.

What breed is she btw?
 
Cassey has this, not as extreme as you, but she just loves being scratched, but its just because she likes the feeling, she doesnt have sweet itch or anything.
Being as though she is 1 yrs old, does still has a little bit of a fluffy coat?
Maybe this is irritating her?
Either that or she just likes the feeling?
Also agree with the minor sweetitch and she may get it when she is older?
 
Nicky - Emma is the same she is out in the field and there is a fence she can scratch herself on but she doesn't, she scratches herself a normal amount but as soon as I bring her in to the stable she is like yay - time to scratch! & I can distract her with her likit, haynet, feed, groom but if I went away and left her in the stable I'd come back to a busy tail!

hollyandivy123 - She is fed Alfa-A & spillers conditioning mix.

Kaylum - She itches literally everywhere! Her side, her tail, her head, her face, her legs, she also rubs her hocks together. It is all over itchyness not just her topline. I spray her with Deet all over and I only put the skin so soft on her topline & haven't notices any reactions so hopefully thats not a problem! & she is a friesian.

caitlin95uk - Yeah she still has big pathes of ginger fuzzy baby coat.
 
alfa a orginal has mollasses switch to alfa oil and i think the condition mix might, it should say on label

i did the switch mine is on alfa a oil in the winter and i have found a mix of flakes which has no mollasses, no garlic and it has made such a differences
 
I was recommended Global herbs - Fly free - which apparently is really good for itchy ponios. I have not used it myself as the wind blows so hard up here, that the flies don't have time to sit down!

If we get an itchy pony from south, we usually wash it is Selsun shampoo (for hoomans) and then rinse with tea-tree oil in the rinsing water. Helps a huge amount too.
 
Nakita said:
Hmm, well Emma is one & I actually wondered if it could be a case of because she is so young she is not showing the full effects of sweet itch. However I don't really understand how this works, why is she not getting the allergic reaction of bumps and scabs just because she is young? Sorry if there is an obvious answer, it just doesn't seem to make much sense to me!
Would a blood test establish if it was sweet itch?
Ibot - she has no bald patches at all which is why her extreme itchyness confuses me :\
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Honestly I had a horse who had sweetitch, but absolutely no lumps, bumps or bald bits. I couldn't even pat him without him trying to nip me as per mutual grooming - it drove me demented.

Things improved when I took him off any garlic at all, which meant having to change his mix as it had garlic amoung the ingredients. I started feeding him brewers yeast. I also used Nettex stop it products such as the shampoo and creams to make him more comfy.

He also wore a Rambo sweetitch hoody which worked a treat. It was quite expensive however and a lady on the yard has just bout a Premier Equine one which is half the price and tbh does exactly the same job.

Good luck with Emma :)
 
Nakita said:
Nicky - Emma is the same she is out in the field and there is a fence she can scratch herself on but she doesn't, she scratches herself a normal amount but as soon as I bring her in to the stable she is like yay - time to scratch!
hollyandivy123 - She is fed Alfa-A & spillers conditioning mix.

Kaylum - She itches literally everywhere! Her side, her tail, her head, her face, her legs, she also rubs her hocks together. It is all over itchyness not just her topline.
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Do you feed her when you bring her into the stable? If so, I would take her off the Alfa-A, some horses react badly to alfalfa, or look at the ingredients of the conditioning mix, does it contain molasses? It does sound rather like an instant reaction to something in the stable, if she is not too itchy outside. I had one with mild sweetitch, she was much better when we stopped feeding her anything molassed.
 
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