Sweet itch! sadly the summer months are here and the flys are biting, what do you do?

My haflinger gelding suffers from severe sweet itch in the summer months (UK) and it just breaks my heart to see him scratching and miserable. I've tried everything to prevent and reduce its effects, he has a boett rug and hes already had to start wearing it, full body cover aswell, but they still seem to bite him and then he ends up ripping his rug. Hes brought in on the mornings and at night. I have him on a powdered mix to repel and reduce the effects of sweet itch, but i started him off on it in the winter (he has to take it everyday) so i don't know whether it will work or not yet. But when he does get a cut i rub benzyl bezoate and sudacrem on, what else helps to sooth the skin? I also use fly repellant, but i haven't found a good one yet any suggestions?





What i want to know is what all you guys use to help sweet itch sufferers?





Luckily hes not as bad as he used to be, but still it saddens me to see him not himself in the summer, what treatments work for your horses? thanks

Sweet itch! sadly the summer months are here and the flys are biting, what do you do?
I spoke to our vet about the antihistamine shots and he advised against them, apparently there is/was some issues with side effects. ( this was a couple of years ago so it may be different now)


We too have been to the extent of hogging what was left of the poor pony's mane. We usually use Dermoline lotion but it is greasy and quite messy. The girls hate using it on him because it looks so bad. But it does seem to help. We also use sudocrem on the actual bites.


He gets half a scoop of garlic in his feed and, following recent advice, is now getting a dose of Marmite as well. Can't tell you if that helps at all yet as we haven't seen any midges recently ( it's so windy here).


the best fly spray we tried was a violent home made mixture ( that bought another horse out in hives) so I'm reconsidering it's advisability right now and waiting to see what happens with the Marmite.


Apparently it's the vitamin B in the Marmite that is supposed to make the difference in the diet.








Edit - we did try rugs but my other horse thinks they make him look like an alien so we had to rescue him twice. Putting him in another field is not an option because he'd go bats to get back in with the others.





Second edit- the violent flyspray was 100% natural essential oils mix discussed and blended under instruction from a qualified aromatherapist. - It never caused a reaction on the pony but when we used it on another horse she came up in welts everywhere it was sprayed.


I'm seriously considering that idea with the garlic puree.....
Reply:I knw this i wierd but it works! take a day when your not riding him, and rub Garlic puree!! near his major rub areas and thinly around some of his body, especially on the tail area! there are other sweetich formulars on the market try ebay. good luck! have you got the silver spray? spray on infected area and it forms a new sheild and protects thats amazin stuff!
Reply:The best things to use are either to rub on some garlic to ward the flies away. Aloe Vera gel is really goo for reliveing the itching and soothing and so is Shea Butter hand cream. We use this on our retired race horse. Although he is better now that he has got a full rug on in the summer.
Reply:hI i know how you feel my pony had this, he used to be a sorry sight!


We used to have to dock his mane he had rubbed it so much!


I used to get an injection at this time of year for it! I used the vet Scott Dunn, and it used to work! i expect they still do these injections! They work ! Good luck!
Reply:i know you have a rug for him but i was going to buy a pony with sweet itch but i didnt and it had a new zeland rug that was said to have worked but im not sure!! Just keep persisting with the power too!
Reply:Get on to the Camrosa people. They are fab' My cob had a classic sweet itch tail last year and after using the Camrosa shampoo and cream his tail started to grow back within days!!! Hard to believe I know but it's true.
Reply:I know it's a pain but keep him in over night and avoid morning and evening midges.


My daughter has a shetland pony with it and last year we kept him in, as much of a pain for us he was very grateful.
Reply:We put ours out in the night and bring them in the day. If there is a small stream in his paddock that could not help as midges


are attracted to streams. Hope this helps.
Reply:I`m in no way qualified to answer this question except to suggest essential oils.


There are many blends you can use for gnats, mosquitos etc, maybe one can be found for this problem.
Reply:first you could get a fly mask for its face and if its really bad they sell whole body fly proof suits or buy the fly mask and put flyspray on your horse alot.
Reply:Don't laugh but skin so soft works as a BRILLIANT fly repellant and moisturizer
Reply:you can buy special spray...dont forget to put bug spray on yor won!
Reply:u can get a fly spray and it really works!! i had to use it on my horse and he stop itching untill i put it on again.
Reply:I had a Saddlebred mare named Paris that was allergic to flys.


My vet at the time put her on a steriod medication that she got I think it was once a month maybe it was once a week I do not remember


I also had to keep her fully covered (fly mask, fly sheets, hoodies/jammy things, I even had a fly mask that wrapped around her legs.) when she was in her stall. I think the shots helped her tremendously her coat was nice and shinny and you couldnt even tell she was allergic to flys.
Reply:I hogged my haflinger x morgan pony's mane last year for the same reason.





I talked to my vet about it and he said that anti-histamines have little effect on horses. Rubbing hydro-cortisone cream on the roots of his mane is an option. It seems to work with my horse.





I also feed garlic as a supplement. I buy it powdered in bulk. The theory is he's so stinky the bugs stay away.





Try the cortisone cream, keep a fly sheet on him.





I've also heard of spraying a mix of 1/2 blue dawn dish soap and 1/2 apple cider vinegar to cut down on bites.





Best of luck! I hated losing that gorgeous mane!
Reply:Back in 1972 my favorite old mare (Who also happened to be my first horse.) got Sarcoptic Mange (Sweet itch, summer itch, whatever you want to call it in its various forms). Basically the SAME problem wither it's caused by mite or by flies. At the boarding stable where I was at, there was a guy who told me he could cure it. I told him, "Go for it!" and he did! That summer her coat came back, slick with sheen I couldn't believe. He painted her with MOTOR OIL! Since that time I've used it to cure horses that their owners had spent a fortune with the vet on. I had one stable owner in Pico Rivera, CA, who thought I was insane, but it cured the horse and the stuff NEVER came back. Paint it on, let it set for at least a couple of weeks then wash it off once you start seeing new coat grow.
Reply:Sounds like you're doing the best you can with the Boett and the Sudocrem. I wouldn't put any benzyl benzoate on broken skin though, and be careful with it as it can be quite irritating. As soon as any skin is broken, stick to the Sudocrem or a cooling lotion. Sudocrem kept in the fridge is very good!





The best fly spray in the world is Leovet's PowerPhaser. It stinks like you wouldn't believe, but the flies seem to hate it. Ride-Away stocks it - it costs about £12 I think, for a 500ml bottle.
Reply:We are about to try something with a horse on our yard who gets really bad sweet itch in summer. He has to wear a Boett all the time. My dogs react really badly to insect bites, it sparks off wet eczema which is hard to clear up. I noticed that if I give them Aloe Vera juice in their food they didn't react so badly, in fact sometimes there is no reaction at all. We are going to start this horse on it now so that he is prepared before the flies get bad. It will be interesting to see what happens. If it works I will post it on here like a question and let you know





PS Sarcoptic mange isn't the same as sweet itch!
Reply:This is what I'm doing this year, because I hate the expensive fly sprays that don't work %26amp; "I've tried everything else under the sun!"


"Bug Off Garlic for Horses"


http://www.springtimeinc.com/category/s


I've also heard of adding apple cider vinegar to their feed. It sounds like the same principal as the garlic. You can also go over your entire horse with a Bounce fabric softener sheet %26amp; tie one on his halter, bridle, girth %26amp;/or saddle. I'm starting that today until the garlic kicks in.
Reply:When I kept horses and there were sweet itch sufferers on the yard my father was working for the Wellcome Foundation (Now Glaxo SmithKline) and he brought home samples including a fly preparation called Stomoxin. You might be able to still get this at Agricultural Centres.





We tried it on all the horses around, including the ones with sweet itch and there were definitely fewer flies.





The sweet itch horses were kept in during dusk to daylight (when midges are at their worst), but we noticed after a few weeks an improvement in all of them, so applied the stomoxin (and continued the strict regime of coming in before dusk) and washed only with water and then given copious amounts of the stomoxin and within weeks they were showing signs of hair regrowth and considerable ease of the condition. The next year the regime was started earlier and of 7 horses - 6 were clear and had manes and tails that the owners could pull and plait!





The one that did not improve was often neglected anyway.





I continued this research and eventually it was licenced for horses as well as cattle.





When I went to work on several yards afterwards I kept on with the stomoxin on other sweet itch cases and they all improved.





I too used to use the benzyl benzoate in, but I feel now that this might exacerbate the problem as there are things in that that horses (and definitely humans) can be allergic to including lanolin and petroleum gelly. I would try just udder cream (also from Glaxo) - the Iraqi clients my father used to export to used to buy this in copious amounts and use it as a moisturiser after shaving (!!)





Another point, thinking of shaving is to clip the horse fully, regardless of other peoples' opinions whatever time of year so you have a clear view of all patches and potential patches. This also keeps the horse a bit cooler and avoids too much sweating which can add to irritation!





Let us know how you get on! A tough regime is the only answer.
Reply:That's awful. I hope you find what works.





We have a product at the western store where I work called "calm coat" that's been proved to restore healthy coats for animals. Since you're in the UK, you might not be able to get it there, but it's an all natural oil - you put a drop or two on the hot spot until it goes away then a certain amount for maintenance afterwards. It have lavendar and a few other oils in it that are all natural.





I tend to believe and agree with the first answer you received - although that person may not think they are qualified to answer, this forum is about ideas and opinions.





I agree with the idea of the natural things because we have no idea what man-made things cause - we know some things man has made to make life easier or cheaper causes cancer and ill effects we don't even know about.





There are feed-through fly repellants, and there are natural things too. A big US barrel horse trainer feeds a certain amount of pure garlic and apple cider vinegar to their horses daily and swears by it.





What about also trying fly predators? I have heard of people who've had great success with them - I tried them and although they seem to cut down on the flies, I couldn't continue because I had a manure pile that just keeps generating them that I must get rid of first. These little buggers work to get rid of flies. But if the problem is other bugs, that won't help.





We have gnats real bad at our farm and I can't figure out how to get rid of them - they make life simply awful - no fun to be out when it's hot because they get up your nose %26amp; in your eyes. So I have no ideas how to get rid of or control gnats.





What about your vet? Can the vet do bloodwork or something or can he establish that the horse is perhaps allergic to a certain thing or bug causing the hot spots? I've heard of horses being allergic or sensitive to something, then when they do get a bug bite they have all sorts of bad things happen.





Maybe check out "Calm Coat" on line - there's also some pest control products made by a German company that are supposedly all natural - I can't remember the name, but the gel is called "deo-lotion" - the items are packaged in bright orange bottles. Some people swear by them. I was using Repel and wipe on my mare's face then she started losing hair on her face last summer so I switched to this and some natural flyspray made of Marigold something-or-other and didn't have the problem again.





Good luck!
Reply:ummm... i am not sure what some good treatmeants for horses would be. Call an animal vet, and ask them for help.