would you buy a horse with sweet itch

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As the subject line really.

just had a horse vetted and he passed fine but was noted he does suffer from sweet itch.

This hadn't been mentioned previously just that flys bothered him.

Any advice greatfully received
 
personally???no.wouldn't buy anything that was going to be high maintainence ....there are treatments available for it and rugs etc but why walk into something knowing there is a problem already? Also, we have still water here and lots of trees.for flies etc.....so no, I wouldn't buy .
 


Depends how bad it was & how treatable. I've had a Shettie with bad sweetitch before now & it was treatable. If the horse was perfect in every other way & the sweetitch wasn't really bad then yes, I'd consider still buying the horse.
 
It would depend whether it was currently under control and how severe it was ie if using a boett rug mean't it didn't flare up etc. If the pony was perfect in every other way I wouldn't mind.
 
depends on where you will be keeping him and how severe the sweetitch is. as genie says if you have a lot of water around etc then there will be lots of flies. my welsh developed sweetitch 2 years ago but doesnt suffer to badly with it,usually just rubs her mane and tail out given half the chance. hers is managed with a standard fly rug and face mask and ive started feeding her a supplement called think fly which was recommended to us.
have you questioned the current owners with regards to the vets findings ?
 
My dressage horse with sweetitch is fine and rideable all summer as long as I cover him up in his sweetitch hoody - but all my others wear fly rugs anyway so this isn't any hardship! If he hasn't got it too badly, I wouldn't let it put you off.
 
i would if i was dead set on that horse and knew that it was controllable i.e. with a rug or suppliments. however if the owner failed to mention this before the vetting i wouldnt overly trust them.
 
I knew he wore a fly rug and head mask but the rug didn't have a neck piece on it. I asked about it and also whether he suffered from sweetitch. The answer was that flys did bother him which was why he wore them but no about sweet itch. I have to say I didn't notice any rubbing at the top of the tail but the mane above the withers was a bit scrawney but that I know can be caused by rugs rubbing on it. The rest of his mane is fine and I couldn't detect any fly bites or anything on him.

Am wondering if the vet is just covering himself in these days of litigation. The vets recomendation was he is a lovely horse and he would reccomend purchase.

I already managed to get money off the selling price do you think I should try to negotiate it lower?

Thank you for all the great responses so far. He really is a lovely horse and have just been reading up about it and it seems you can have varying levels of sweet itch.
 
Hmmmm... I might be wondering what else the sellers haven't mentioned!?! And checking very carefully for anything that wouldn't come out in a vetting, such as stable vices or behaviour issues...

Unless I absolutely had my heart set on this horse, I would be looking around for a similar one without the sweet-itch.
 
I have purchased a horse with sweetitch- nearly two years down the line would I still have purchased him? 100% yes.
I knew that he had it before I purchased him and knew how bad he could get.

He ticks all the boxes and is perfect for what I do with him, he wears a fly rug when out in the field and an equilibrium mask, is fly sprayed and benzyl benzoate is used on his mane tail and face, I also use a fly veil when hacking.

It really depends on you! There is the obviously extra expense but I don't think he necessarily takes up any more time than my other one who doesn't have it.

Hope this helps
 
Personally no, my friend brought a horse 18 months ago that was meant to have mild sweet itch, but he is in an awful state.
She baths his sores every day, has tried every ointment/spray/wash you can think of, he was on injections for 9 months with no affect and now she has got him on steroids.
He wears sweet itch rugs and masks etc.. and is fenced away from anything he can itch on but he humps the ground! His sheath is twice the size it should be.

Seeing how much effort/time and money my friend has to put in to him has put me right off!
I like horses to have mane and tail!
 
how soon do you need to make a decision?

we're at the time of year now where sweet itch should be getting well into it's stride if the horse has got it, so if you can string it out a week maybe you can see how bad it might get?

if the horses fly rug has no neck piece then the owners mustn't be too worried about covering his mane up-confusing, if they're trying to hide something they would keep the neck covered to prevent sweet itch starting, surely?


like the others have said, if it's not too bad then i wouldn't let it put me off, but i do know that really bad sweet itch can be a real stress
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and really bad sweet itch would make me think twice
 
i agree, it is manageable but i think it is hard work. I don't think i would buy one with it. However if it ticks all the other boxes...
Remember there will be lots of horses out there who tick the boxes and don't have sweet itch.
It is all about personal choice, i have a tb who windsucks, lots of people wouldn't have chosen her but it doesn't bother me.
Horses for courses as they say,
 
TBH no I wouldn't. But its really up to you - they ARE extra work and I believe SI gets worse and worse every year... If the horse is perfect in every other way then it really is up to you.
 
I had a pony with mild sweet itch for 16 years & I have to say that I would definately NOT buy another with sweet itch.

It was exceptionally hard work & although I managed to show him at county level it was horrendous when it really kicked in. I have to say that until the midges came out, it would have been really hard to spot that he had it. When I went on holiday for 3 days & left him in the charge of my friend who was instructed to put killitch on every day & not leave him out in the midges, I came back to a maneless pony!! I had to withdraw him from all the shows as he was a welsh cob being shown at county level & was meant to be untrimmed!!

I would be very wary that they didn't mention it to you as I can honestly say that I probably could have passed my lad on without owning up as to how bad he really was. many people were shocked when I told them he had it as it really wasn't obvious but that was purely & simply down to my hard work at keeping it at bay. He used to have open sores under his belly where they used to eat him then the big flys would get to it.

Please think very carefully about this, you cannot ever be late to get it in from the field as mine who was the kindest sweetest lad in the world would become almost dangerous when he was being bugged by the midges. He was so distressed that he really didn't know what he was doing and just wanted to escape them. He was a different animal when the midges WEREN'T about.

good luck with your decision.
 
It all depends how bad the sweetitch is.... if its a case of open sores then no, however my boy has sweetitch and we cope fine with a few lotions and potions and herbal tablets nad a Rambo sweet itch hoody!

As Amymay said, if it ticks all the boxes - yes
 
The one thing I forgot to add is that you need to think carefully where you will keep the horse. My lad was treatable & under control for many years but, when I moved him to a different yard it went out of control. It was so bad that I moved him back to the old yard & he was much better and improved immediately. The yard I moved him back to had a pond next to the paddocks which should have been worse for him not better. The only difference I can think of is that the other yard where he was worse had more wooded areas surrounding the paddocks & midges seemed to congregate in them. I still don't really know why but it was amazing at how different the sweet itch was
 
It depends on the horse!

I have one with severe sweet itch, but with careful management not many people would know when we are out competing.

I've had 2 people say they'd buy him in a flash and he is a very talented fellow!

You need to have fully electric fenced paddocks and the ability to leave them out 24/7 in midge season. Also rugs will cost you around £200 per year!
 
Thanks everyone for your responses.

I have decided to go ahead with the purchase after much long and hard thought. I found the national sweet itch web site and read up on there as well.

I think the main thing that swung it for me was that the vet recommeded buying him and stated how lovely a horse he is. Passing a 5* vetting is not the easist thing for a horse to do I gather so in every other respect he is fine.

I didn't see signs of rubbing apart from what I stated earlier and there are certainly no open weeping spots and I couldn't find any evidence of raised bite marks.

He really is lovely and everything I wanted and is a very good price so if it does go pear shaped then at least I haven't spent thousands.

We did also speak with the owner, they got him last August (and yes the reason for selling him on is very valid) and they were genuinly surprised as they hadn't seen any evidence of the usual sweet itch sytoms just what they had already told us that he finds flys annoying.

When I last owned horses (to many years ago to mention as it makes me feel very old) sweet itch wasn't really around like it is now but some horses were just more bothered by flys and to be honest perhaps that is the case here. Yes I know I might be making a big mistake but the pros out wiegh the cons. I will of course be keeping a close eye on things and no doubt trying out every fly spray in the saddlery until we find the one that works best for him and investing in fly rugs and maybe even needing to move yards until we get the one that suits him best but then even now I think he is worth it and deserves the chance of being spoiled rotten.

Once I get him I'll provide everyone the story and try and post some pictures.

Thanks once again, this is such a great forum
 
I have, I put a similar post up in January. So far we are all coping well. And I have to say the Boett is doing it's job (even if it is a bit small for her). I have to say I am still feeling my way on this, but so far so good...

One thing I would say is that if sweet itch has been declared on the vetting cert, you may well have trouble from the insurers who will automatically want to exclude every skin condition. You will have to argue that one with them if they do so.
 
That's great news. Good luck & have fun with him. My vet recommended Avon Skin so Soft bath oil to repel the midges. I know it may sound odd but it really did work. It is so popular that my vet stocks it now. If you dilute it with water & spray onto horse not only does it work but, they smell nice too!! I use in on my two horses who don't have sweet itch & it helps them too. It was discovered by sea fishermen who were plagued by them so, you too can spray yourself. It's great if you are outside & they get in your hair!!
 
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