I have 2 ponies with sweet itch. One got sweet itch last yeared aged 8, the other this year, aged 1.

Last year Badger ended up on high doses of steriods... which i'm really tryin to avoid with either pony as he is also well rounded!

Both have normal fly rugs as can't afford the big hoods right now..

I'm started using 'Think Fly' product which is ment to work very well... i have yet to see any change.. i'm actually wondering about leaving there fly rugs off as thinking could the retriction of the coat be making them worse for itching? They have both got worse this past week and only thing different is... they were put on think fly (i don't think its ment to make them itch worse though! lol) and both had a bath at the weekend... i used natural gentle type of shampoo though with the likes of tea tree and other good stuff in it... could that have actually made them itch worse... should i try bathing them in something else...

Can't really stable them... field is kept clean as possible...and they have fly spray put on twice a day (again... my fly spray contains lavander, tea tree, citronella and lemongrass... could this be making them worse.. but been using this long before and when i was using skratch plus he did improve slightly... just wouldn't eat it..

I'm clutching at straws... i hate sweet itch and after this i can tell you the best horse in the world could fall into my lap and if it had sweet itch i wouldn't touch it.......... (thats not to say i'm going to get rid of the boys coz they have sweet itch)

I just need to find something that will help them...

Last year wiht Badger we exashed the lists of things to try, brought him expensive rugs and he shredded them in days with the rubbing, ended up hogged and very miserable due to it all... we aren't that bad but don't want him to get that bad either as he was itching well into december/january 09!!


RIP Halo - 1998 - 2006. Miss you always.

My little horrors darlings.

Have you tried 'sweetitch' the homeopathic tablets- I think made by Eques Health Have found excellent in the past

I have found a pink cream called Itch Stop very soothing and effective on areas that are already damaged and scabby. I bought it at Aivly's. Hope that helps. Can you electric fence low down so they can't get to their favourite itchy posts?

Piriton tablets work a treat.

Our garlic-added paddock bucket does seem to keep insects at bay very well. £14+ from Scats (Purple SupaLyx bucket)

---

Check Out SeaSpirit's Used Saddle List!

with my 2 i have tried

equus health sweetich aid - no difference
piriton - helps AFTER they have been bitten
sudocrem - not very useful
benzoyl benzoate - highly irratating to the skin if there are open sores, be careful
calamine - messy
skinso soft (avon) - prevents the midges getting on the fur but the saddle slips if you get it on the saddle patch!
Switch (carr day and martin POM) - works well to keep midges off, but quite expensive
coopers fly repellant - works well but needs frequent re-application therefore exxpensive
any 'normal' fly repellant - you may as well flush money down pan
lavender oil appears to attact insects (in my experience)
feeding garlic seemed to negatively affect their skin - they got very scurfy and didnt seem to keep the flies away particularly well. there is also a lot of research that suggests that garlic can suppress the immune system.
Alva products seemed to work a little, but are difficult to get hold of not many places had them in stock.
i was having some positive results with nettex stop itch salve complete, then they changed the formulation, it wasnt working so well so i stopped using it.



mine have snuggy hoods which work well but they are put on in march and taken off in october IF it is cool enough. I take them off to ride and plaster them in coopers or Switch.

i make my own stable spray with rosemary sage and wormwood steeped in boiling water mixed with tea tree and eucalytus oils and an emulsifer. NB wormwood is not reccomended for preganant mares as EATING it has been linked with abortion, so you would have to leave it out, which is a shame as its a very good insecticide. I havent used it on the ponies yet as i need to do a patch test to make sure it wont irratate their skin.

hope this helps.

My horse has suffered from sweetitch for a few years having started with it around the age of 14. The best and only solution I have found to work is the Boett Rug which I put on him in March before the midges start. Also from Boett I order a sticky cream that I put on his privates that stop the midges feeding there you only apply once a week and it really works. When the midges are particulary bad I bring him into his stable. All our fencing is electrified so he cannot rub.

It is a heartbreaking condition and good luck with getting on top of it.

I feel for you Jodie - Tally had sweet itch from the age of 4 and it is such hard work

As a dartmoor he had to have a full mane for the show ring and I did manage to keep most of his mane and tail while I was showing him (before the days of fly rugs). I used a home-made mixture which worked for him (as well as the sweet itch he had very sensitive skin). I used an old shampoo bottle (with a nozzle). Half fill it with benzyl benzoate, add calamine lotion to just above the 3/4 mark, then fill to the top with baby oil. Shake well before each application and plaster it on the mane and top of the tail, making sure to get it right down to the roots. Apply night and morning.

Drawbacks: the rain washes it away (and of course once the rain stops, the midges come out) and because it's oily, dirt sticks to it. Also it's hard to apply to under the belly as it's quite a thin liquid.

In his last few years I kept him in a lightweight (breathable) full neck rug all through the summer and put Itch Stop under his belly.

Aud, the cheapest place I have found the Itch Stop ishttp://www.nettexsupplies.co.uk/itch_stop_2.html



http://www.nfstallions.info/ . . . http://www.forestuprising.org.uk/

benzol benzoate is brill but either buy it from ebay or tell the chemist its for a friend who has a skin problem, they wont sell it now to you for equines as it was never approved for them and fgs its been used on equines for ever lol but dont put it on raw patches use something like savlon

My horse suffered with sweet itch for many years about 12 I think. In that time I tried almost everything that could be purchased from sudocrem to the Boett rug. Some stuff worked better than others but only with limited success.

Then I mentioned to a friend of mine the problem. She happened to be a Reiki master/teacher and came out and did some reiki on him. It was like magic, he's never had sweetich since, and that was four years ago.

I would just like to add that I was never a beleiver in the power of reiki, but have been converted by the change in my horse.

I'm a firm believer in reiki... my sister does it so she treats my horses if needed, so i'll give it ago.

One thing i have noticed... i have 2 ponies with sweet itch... 8yr old Badger who got it last year... after rugs, trying everything under the sun and spending a fortune the only thing that did work were very high doses of steroids from the vet. This year i rugged him from end of winter, moment the first midge was seen (and he didn't have his rug off till end of December!)

Now this year his yearling son has it as well, Magic (who been through enough stress to sink a battle ship lately poor mite.. last thing he needs)

Now both have been given the exact same treatments.. Fly spray, food supplements, sudocream on sores etc and just found some benzole so will be using that. Badger got his neck fur clipped off so not maulting out making him rub (he maulted out well on his body..) Magic got fully clipped. Both been bathed in same shampoo and both living out, were in a field with post and rail, just gone into full electrified field.

The only difference is Badger has been rugged since March... he lives it in poor mite... and he hates it!
Magic hasn't really been rugged as struggling to find a fly rug small enough...

The difference in the ponies.. they both seem to be itch the same... but Magic has better skin..

Could it be from the damage of last years itching Badger is worse this year... or could it be being rugged 24/7 is actually making it worse... I have noticed neither seem to be plagued by flies quite as bad as some of the other ponies... i'm tempted to leave both ponies naked and see if it does actually help.. (or only rugging them in the evening so at worse midge time they are rugged..)

Any views?



RIP Halo - 1998 - 2006. Miss you always.

My little horrors darlings.

hi,along with the brittle hooves he also had sweet itch i found the best way was to wash with hibi scrub,rub in some yellow summer fly cream and avon skin so soft spray cleared it up within weeks!!

Give the reiki a go. It has really worked for mine. I now don't need to do anything as he doesn't suffer anymore. I'm saving a fortune not buying lotions and potions and rugs etc. Forgot to mention that he lives out as well.

Best of luck, hope you have the same success as I did.

I have had three ponies with sweet itch, all varying ages and types. You have to address the problem early, to leave them "naked" to see how they go, in my opinion would be a disaster as you leave them open to being bitten and that will set them up for that year for terrible sweet itch and no matter what you do, rugs, creams etc will be too late. In my opinion the boett was the only rug that really addressed the midges biting them, my mare seemed to attract any biting insect and would rub at the drop of a hat, the boett was put on all year round and that solved her problem. The amount of money I saved on creams and potions was worth the cost of the rug. The creams and potions I tried before buying the rug was horrible as when I went to ride I got the stuff on my hands and that irriated my skin. My animals ended up with lovely manes and tails so the cost of the rug was worth it.

i tihnk to prevent it would of been better than rugging the poor souls tbh and i find treating it v early with the benzoate has stopped my mare from rubbing except for a tiny little patch on her tail but its so mild i can still benzoate it a couple of times a week i find thats enuf to stop it

But benzyl benzoate neat is far too harsh for any pony with a sensitive skin - it made my boy's skin all peel off.



http://www.nfstallions.info/ . . . http://www.forestuprising.org.uk/

My pony with sweet-itch is rugged 24/7 (Rambo SI Hoody), without it she would rub herself to the point of drawing blood . Personally I don't bother putting any creams on her unless she has got a sore patch, I can't remember the name of the stuff I use, it's in a little black tub and isn't particularly expensive. The other thing that may have made a difference to her is I've been feeding Formula4Feet due to her having a mild bout of lami. I noticed a difference last year when I first started feeding it. Although she hasn't stopped itching completely, her skin and coat have improved in condition. She does also get Feedmark's Equidermis, only started this spring, and I think the 2 things combined have made a definite difference.



Kiss my Ass!!

Hi


This year I got recommended a product call "stop it all" .........its a completely natural product (smells bad, like rotten cabbages!!) its a combination of bathing in it and daily applications.....for me its working a treat, its made his skin soft and not flakey therefore its not itchy....and repells those horrible midges (and his pony friends!!)

http://www.karenruggles.co.uk/

Here is the website if interested for a nose...I spoke to Karen who was really helpful.

he is also covered up in his boett all the time....I know they are expensive but worth it...I tried full fly rugs and I was going through 2-4 a year where he ripped them by scatching with his back feet.

since using this combination .... he is a much happier pony with out any itching and living out 24 hours a day!!

I hope you find something that works for yours

Gemma

Well i'm now beginning to wonder if it is indeed sweet itch i'm fighting with... ( i know for sure Badger has it but seems to be getting some control of it)

Magic is itching... was from beginning of season really... but now Locket has a lot of lumpy, crusty bumps all over his neck... dispite the fact i haven't seen him itching... Admittedly with Locket & Magic being Badger's son's.. they have more chance of it being sweet itch but its just seems my awfully bad luck if both boys have got it... as well as there dad.. (now gelded for anyone who isn't up to date on that part!)

On another unrelated pony though, Piper (magic's mum) is rubbing on the fence... she has a wealth of mane and only rubbing her neck... all ponies seem to be worse on there necks those that are rubbing and from watching the ponies several others seem to have gone through a stage of having very itchy necks.. Tigga and Chaos a few weeks ago were rubbing badly but only there neck's and then they stopped (tigga did have another problem which could have been cause of rubbing as he was covered in large under the skin lumps, i assumed fly bites as putting fly on him seemed to sort this out..)

I'm gonna have a chat with the vet as don't want to be thinking and assuming sweet itch... if there is another cause.. i suppose with Magic & locket sweet itch seems the most likely cause because there dad has it.

On the trying stuff out i think the 'think fly' is beginning to kick in as they don't seem to have so many around them, combined with using coopers fly repellent every few days under the rugs and a homemade ones over the rugs twice a day, they are still itchy.. but least magic is eating his tea now instead of choosing to rub himself on the bucket/gate and anything else within his reach!
Benzole a total no no, made them both worse. Sudocream seems to work better. And both had there rugs altered to try and get them to fit better and stop slipping down and this seem to be working as the rugs stay in place better and give them more of a nose to tail cover... rather than withers to tail...

I was told by someone to stable them from 4pm-10am so they are in at the worse midge time... anyone had success with this... i did this last year with Badger and all it did was give him more scratching time within the 4 walls!


RIP Halo - 1998 - 2006. Miss you always.

My little horrors darlings.

I use a Boett rug on Lady which is worth its weight in gold. And she comes in overnight all year round, which has the advantage in summer of her being in at dawn and dusk.

This year I have looked to try and improve things for her by addressing her diet. She is now on an alfalfa based diet with a dash of linseed oil added and also cider vinegar, plus baileys lo-cal balancer which contains Brewers Yeast. There has been a very significant improvement in her SI which I can only put down to the high protein, high fibre, low sugar diet she is now on. Not a bit of cereal in sight, when last year she used to have chaff and nuts. A very welcome bonus has been that I haven't had to keep patching her Boett which was constant last year when she somehow would manage to keep ripping it where she was rubbing.

Just something for you to think about...

Ive tried the boetts and they are a real pain to get on,ive found the best thing is to electrify everything(i even fence off the water trough and use big rubber buckets and fence off trees) , use a rambo sweetitch hoody with a mask (they are easy to put on and have a water proof liner so you can leave them in it even in bad weather).I dont use any lotions or repellants just get the rug on in March before they get itchy.

My 3yr old forester has sweetitch which I have managed to control with a combination of Rambo hoody, (taken off when windy, wet or strong sunshine.)Coopers and Itch Stop cream. Only problem now is her playfull yearling brother is tearing her rug to bits and rips open all the velcro straps. She looks like she's been through a shredder! I would also like to try her in the snuggy hoods rug i bought last year but think he would make even shorter work of ripping this to shreds. Any help appreciated.

Sweet itch is a nightmare. My dad's mare has it, and like most people, we've tried a whole load of things.
Antihistamines - didn't really work
Benzol benzoate - didn't work
Steroids - worked brilliantly but gave her laminitis
The injection things from the vet - didn't really work
Front line (the dog flea stuff) -kind of worked but not great.
Garlic -didn't work
Normal fly repellants - doesn't really work.
Standard fly rugs - not hugely effective
Electric fencing - won't stop the itching but stops them rubbing themselves raw.(if they respect it)

We currently use a Snuggly Hoods rug with deosect fly reppellant. (Strong stuff that you dilute and need gloves to apply). This works excellently for her. We take the rug off in the morning and it goes back on in the evening. This helps prevent her getting over heated in the sun and removing it. We have found that everything works best if you start before the season kicks in once they are bad it is hard to overcome as it becomes a vicious cycle. The Snuggly Hoods are expensive but we had another horse with sweet itch about 15 years ago and rugs didn't seem as readily available then so my mum made him a stretchy lycra rug that covered as much as possible. The snuggly hoods is a similar theory with lycra and velcro. It worked really well and IS a lot cheaper than buying one if you or someone you know is handy with a sewing machine.

I think that like most other things it is a case of trial and error and different thing work on differnt horses and often it seems to be a case of using several things together e.g rugs, fly repellent and electric fencing. Apparently marmite is supposed to be good but haven't tried it. When we went to Scotland on holiday I seemed to be a midge magnet (OH was barely bitten) and the only thing that worked was deet midge repellant which was designed for malaria zones. I think you can get deet products for horses now, which may be worth a go but haven't tried it on the horse.