My gelding is super itchy lately. The gnats have been horrible the past couple of weeks all of a sudden.
It’s going to feel like 110-115 degrees here until Wednesday. He has anhidrosis and bug allergies. I wish I could just bring him home and put him in the house with me.
Let us know how the supplement with DE works. I am trying to reduce the supplements I feed, but seem to always be thinking about a new one! Ugh. I’m ready for fall and winter.
Oh that sounds awful. At least it’s not hot here. For what it’s worth, a vet that I work with suggested hydrocortisone cream mixed with SWAT rubbed on the really itchy areas, for her. That is her belly button and midline at the girth area. I did that today for the first time so I will let you know how that goes. In Florida I used preparation H and that worked well also.
This horse had a terrible no-seeum allergy in Florida, she was in a fly mask and fly sheet unless she was in her stall with a fan on her. She still rubbed her ears her raw and bit her chest until it was bleeding because she was so itchy. The DE supplement is the only one that worked for her. I was so glad we moved away and that allergy went away but it seems it has come back this year which is very frustrating, I feel awful for her.
Homeopathic Ledum can be given for bug related itchies. I just read you can give it for the entire bug season. I can’t remember potency or times per day though.
No idea on the DE, but I will say that the only thing that is working this year for my horse with the bug allergies is Blue-Kote, which has gentian violet in it. Treatment for neck threadworms/sweet-itch helped, and he is on Zyrtec of course, but still trying to rub himself raw. No salve or clay paste is touching it this year. It is a double issue: the itch and getting the skin to heal. The Blue-Kote seems to be the most effective in heat and humidity, also the bugs don’t seem to like it.
It is a good thing he is the bay and not the gray, his entire midline is blue…
Interesting, I’ve never Heard of blu kote for sweet itch.
Zyrtec wasn’t really a thing last time I had this issue so maybe I talk to the vet about that now…
My horse is unbearably itchy for the first time this summer, and we just started him on Zyrtec per vet. I hope it works, he’s been miserable.
Grey
Zyrtec worked for my guy a few years ago with the itchies, but I found out it can cause them to stop sweating, so I figured I’d better not use it on a horse that struggles to sweat anyway.
I’ve been feeding spirulina this year and sometimes I think it’s working and sometimes I think not. At this point I won’t stop it because I’m afraid the itching might be even worse if I do. He likes it and it’s certainly not hurting him at least. I will say, he doesn’t get runny eyes when he’s on it. So that’s good. I don’t think his midline scabbiness has been as bad either, though he still goes to town rubbing his belly on the ground when he rolls.
Mine benefits from regular bathing in Equiderma Neem Shampoo. That always seems to calm his skin and coat down for a few days. He’s due for another bath. Probably get it this afternoon or tomorrow.
I keep telling him I may have to start sending him away to a summer camp in Maine or North Dakota or somewhere.
The Blu-Kote isn’t actually addressing the immediate cause of the Sweet-itch, but it is the only thing that is working this year for reducing the secondary skin issues caused by his constant rubbing. Last year it was the Coat-Defense clay paste that worked…this year that just annoyed him more…next year… who knows.
He lives outside and is a breed that doesn’t do well with humidity anyway (Shire), so my real challenge is getting things to heal back up in the summer time. I’ve learned that medications that keep the skin moist are exactly what I don’t want.
I tried Coat Defense clay and powder both this year for the first time, and my guy acted like they both irritated him more than anything else. I was disappointed. They seemed promising.
He does better with Equiderma products. I use their wound ointment, zinc oxide cream, and lotion, and those seem to work pretty well for his various sores, scabs, etc.
My husband accidentally turned our light gray pony pink. We struggled for years to deal with his chronic diarrhea. Our vet suggested trying Pepto Bismol. We happened to have the liquid version of it on hand, so DH tried syringing it, and ended up with a pony who was entirely pink from his poll to his front hooves. We had enough people thinking this gelding was a pregnant mare, and the misgendering got worse when he was pink.
The Pepto did nothing for him, but we did finally solve the diarrhea problem by feeding Strategy.
I put a few cups of DE in their stalls and in/around the chicken coop. I can’t speak to its ability to control parasites but it does keep things drier than it would be without DE
DE is often used as a binder (acting as an anti-caking agent, aka desiccant), or as a source of silica though there’s never been a documented case of a silica deficiency (per the NRC)
There’s non-food grade which you wouldn’t want to ingest in the slightest, used for pools and perimeter use to control insects.
it’s not any better at fly control than it is internal parasite control. DE works to control insects by coming in contact with an insect with an exoskeleton, creating tiny little cuts, and because DE is so dry, works to dehydate the insect. That’s why it has to be reapplied when it rains, aka it’s useless when wet
Feeding DE to potentially impact fly production in manure piles therefore doesn’t work. An experiement was even done to apply DE to manure piles, and it failed as fly control that way as well, and that’s a LOT more DE potentially coming into contact with flies and their larva
Just be sure it’s not anywhere anyone can inhale any of it, including the chickens
Yeah. My husband maintains our (never used) pool and adds DE to it every once in a while. He wears a full on respirator when he does it. And gloves.
Update: the product above has arrived, it is a powder. It also apparently shouldn’t have been shipped to me in California (thanks chewy 
).
Also, I did some of my own research here: https://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/degen.html#:~:text=The%20Food%20%26%20Drug%20Administration%20lists,diatomaceous%20earth%20products%20are%20purified and it doesn’t seem as horrible as many people here claim it to be. 🤷
I’ll give it a shot.
ETA it smells super garlicky. I thought Princess would turn her nose up at it, as she’s very picky, but she scarfed it down!
You outlaw, you! 
AniMed products are usually pretty good in my experience, so I hope this one is too. Is it very garlicky smelling?
Report back. If it helps yours, it might help mine.
Most places won’t even ship stuff like this here, I’m really surprised to see this on the label. I’ve definitely skirted these rules before because they are really dumb.
I’m glad to hear that you’ve had good experiences with them. Starting it tonight, I’m sure it’ll take a little while to kick in but I’ll let you know!
Any improvement? My leased horse is on an herbal blend for sweet itch. But it’s $120 a month.
What’s your dose?
14 pills twice a day. It seems to help, generally, or else he’s just gotten over the worst of it and is holding steady. He is much less itchy, and very few new scabs and sores. He did break out in awful hives after a week+ on the meds, but they’ve gone away.
There’s a mg to weight calculation somewhere, on the bottle or online somewhere, but 14 2x is what my vet said. Horse is pretty average size, 16-16.2ish, medium weight/build.
Store brand at BJs or Costco is pretty affordable. BJs is about $16.00 for 365 pills.
On the whole, I think it is working well enough that I’m going to start it pre-emptively next summer.
Grey
Cetirizine dosing has been studied as effective at 0.2-0.4mg/kg every 12-24 hours. 500kg = 1100lb which means 100-200mg per dose, which is 10-20 of the OTC 10mg pills, and that can be done 1-2 times a day.
Generally, start high at 0.4mg twice a day, and if you find results, work your way down to the lowest effective dose
Most vets seem to generically tell clients 10 pills twice a day unless it’s a REALLY large horse. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t.
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