What's the matter with him??

hihosilver

hihosilver

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The last 2 days my poor gelding has been really distressed due to being very itchy. I have never seen such an itchy horse and it's driving him mad that he is kicking and bucking. He is unclipped so does get hot when ridden. I presumed he was just getting too hot with his 100g rug and changed it for a lightweight run with no neck. At first he was itchy on his neck but today when I took rug off it was on his flanks he was biting and kicking out. No sign of lice but I couldn't get that
Near to him today to check. Any ideas? Thanks in advance x
 
Maybe try leaving him unrugged for a week and see if it improves? I typically don't rug unless they're clipped or it's blowing, wet and freezing.
 
At odd times of the year my mare can get so itchy she'll rub herself raw - piriton comes to our rescue.

Is all the haylage from the same field? Not a new batch with anything odd in there?
 
I had him out all last year unclipped and he was fine but he was not ridden as turned away to finish growing. I have taken rug off today to see if it is the rug.
 
SEL said:
At odd times of the year my mare can get so itchy she'll rub herself raw - piriton comes to our rescue.

Is all the haylage from the same field? Not a new batch with anything odd in there?
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Haylage is fairly rich but not feeding it adlib. How much Piriton do you give?
 
hihosilver said:
The last 2 days my poor gelding has been really distressed due to being very itchy. I have never seen such an itchy horse and it's driving him mad that he is kicking and bucking. He is unclipped so does get hot when ridden. I presumed he was just getting too hot with his 100g rug and changed it for a lightweight run with no neck. At first he was itchy on his neck but today when I took rug off it was on his flanks he was biting and kicking out. No sign of lice but I couldn't get that
Near to him today to check. Any ideas? Thanks in advance x
Click to expand...
We have one who is mega itchy and has raised pustules, she is so itchy she makes herself sore, skin test etc came back with nothing she goes to any she can to rub on and even got the round pen down yesterday itching on it.



With yours

1] I would first think of anything different like has his rugs been washed in anything different
2] Then any horse on the yard also itchy
3] Is he in a new box where another horse was
4] Has he been bathed in anything which he is allergic and caused Hives??
5] Diet change
6] Numnah washed in anything
7] They can if rolling naked get Staphareus from bacteria in the soil which gets into their skin and makes them really itchy (vet diagnoses)
8] Could be anything in the hay or haylage sometimes you don't know what goes in if hay too close to edge of the field and plants get into it causing things like liver issues
9] Worms can sometimes make them itchy
10] Fox mange infection from fox mange makes them itchy
 
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Do you have deer that venture into the fields?. My horse had a couple of days of stamping, biting her side's and tail swishing. On the third day, when I pulled back her rug I saw a large insect run across her back, think thumb nail size, I grabbed it (it was that big), and it was a deer louse. She obviously only had the one as her itchiness immediately disappeared. My companion pony, who is an exmoor with an impressive coat, was really itchy a couple of years ago, I just dusted him in louse powder and that cured him - I suspect he had picked up a deer louse, but I would have no hope of seeing one in his coat!
 
monkeymad said:
Do you have deer that venture into the fields?. My horse had a couple of days of stamping, biting her side's and tail swishing. On the third day, when I pulled back her rug I saw a large insect run across her back, think thumb nail size, I grabbed it (it was that big), and it was a deer louse. She obviously only had the one as her itchiness immediately disappeared. My companion pony, who is an exmoor with an impressive coat, was really itchy a couple of years ago, I just dusted him in louse powder and that cured him - I suspect he had picked up a deer louse, but I would have no hope of seeing one in his coat!
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Actually we do have a lot of deer! They come into the field regularly especially early morning. How do I get rid of it?
 
monkeymad said:
Do you have deer that venture into the fields?. My horse had a couple of days of stamping, biting her side's and tail swishing. On the third day, when I pulled back her rug I saw a large insect run across her back, think thumb nail size, I grabbed it (it was that big), and it was a deer louse. She obviously only had the one as her itchiness immediately disappeared. My companion pony, who is an exmoor with an impressive coat, was really itchy a couple of years ago, I just dusted him in louse powder and that cured him - I suspect he had picked up a deer louse, but I would have no hope of seeing one in his coat!
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That sounds like a tick and a large one at that, ticks can irritate when they are moving about so it could be he has picked up one or two but you normally find them in the skin if you look closely.
 
be positive said:
That sounds like a tick and a large one at that, ticks can irritate when they are moving about so it could be he has picked up one or two but you normally find them in the skin if you look closely.
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I'm pretty certain this was a louse - my friend captured one from her horse about 5 years ago and put it in a jamjar, the vet was due up for jabs and she asked him what it was, she was worried it was a tick, but vet said a deer louse!
 
hihosilver said:
Actually we do have a lot of deer! They come into the field regularly especially early morning. How do I get rid of it?
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I can remember my friend getting a liquid solution from the vet when her horse picked up a deer louse. With my old pony, as I couldn't see any obvioius critters on him, I just got a tub of louse powder from the local farm shop, and one dusting stopped him itching.
 
monkeymad said:
I'm pretty certain this was a louse - my friend captured one from her horse about 5 years ago and put it in a jamjar, the vet was due up for jabs and she asked him what it was, she was worried it was a tick, but vet said a deer louse!
Click to expand...

I found a large tick one day running along the back of a pony who was going mad trying to eject it with huge bucks, I had no idea that they had lice that size as well, learn something new every day on here.
 
monkeymad said:
Do you have deer that venture into the fields?. My horse had a couple of days of stamping, biting her side's and tail swishing. On the third day, when I pulled back her rug I saw a large insect run across her back, think thumb nail size, I grabbed it (it was that big), and it was a deer louse. She obviously only had the one as her itchiness immediately disappeared. My companion pony, who is an exmoor with an impressive coat, was really itchy a couple of years ago, I just dusted him in louse powder and that cured him - I suspect he had picked up a deer louse, but I would have no hope of seeing one in his coat!
Click to expand...

I've had this problem when riding my boy completely lost it and I had to get off. At first I had no idea why he was behaving like that. It happened several times over the Autumn but it's stopped now thankfully. They're also know as keds. They are much tougher than midges, hard to squash and burrow into the fur. Horrible things!
 
be positive said:
I found a large tick one day running along the back of a pony who was going mad trying to eject it with huge bucks, I had no idea that they had lice that size as well, learn something new every day on here.
Click to expand...

I've had that as well. I was standing talking to a friend and my horse suddenly went bonkers cavorting around his stable at first I thought he was colicking but it was all down to a tick walking across his back.

Link to deer keds - they look a bit like ticks. When my friend and I were trying to identify the culprit we googled insect that looks like a tick with wings!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipoptena_cervi
 
Haven't been on here for a good while but I had exactly this issue with my Arab, it drove him and me mad, and we finally solved it so here's what our issue was.

When he was sweating in a rain sheet rug, his pores opened and allowed bacteria in. Like rainscald but the damp warm conditions for the bacteria were under the rug and due to sweat. Thin sheets don't allow air to circulate and trap moisture in, so bacteria will thrive. In the end he erupted in a regular pattern of small lumps which oozed yellow serum.

Couple of things you can do: go to a light fill rug (100g fine, no fill is a sweatbox) or ideally no rug. If rugging, you must keep the horse as dry as possible (bacteria needs damp to grow). I used keratex mud fever powder all over my lad's back to keep him ultra dry.

When you ride, if he sweats use an antibac spray before rugging up again. You can't put keratex on a wet horse but eqyss micro tek spray worked for us.

Horse must be dry, or he must be clean (antibacced to the max!), to stop the bacteria.

Hibiscrub is a good antibacterial agent. You can use that on a bit of kitchen towel to wipe down the inside of the rug (as bacteria will be on the inside).

You can also look at other things to boost the immune system as bacteria only take a hold when immunity is slightly compromised, most likely in winter when conditions aren't as good.

This is what sorted my lad out. My girl can sweat with no issues, so I think it only affects some horses this way!

Good luck, hope you sort it, whatever it is!
 
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