Equiderma - anyone used this with success for itching caused by insects?

[Dr_Doolittle]

This keeps popping up on my FB feed (with glowing testimonials), but I thought I would post here to get some unbiased opinions.

My poor black mare is PLAGUED by bugs and gets lots of bites and itches as soon as it gets hot and humid (the bugs and ticks LOVE her :mad:); she is on MSM, flax, and her skin and coat are in good shape, no rain rot or scratches despite the wet weather.

She gets ticks in her tail and is generally itchy in spite of everything. I keep on top of fly spraying her and check her for ticks, remove them, clean her tail, spray Hot Spot on the itchy spots, use Listerine, and last year I tried the Bug Off Garlic - not sure how helpful that was.

Should I try the spot-on fly repellents again? Not sure they worked that well the last time, but this Equiderma sounds promising - if a little spendy.

Thoughts?

[Simkie]

Are you talking about their neem and aloe spray? It’s certainly the hot new thing, isn’t it?

I don’t find it any more helpful than other sprays. It’s okay. Kind of nice to have something “natural” in rotation.

I use the springtime garlic for ticks and find it fabulous for that, but I also bang tails above fetlocks, trim whiskers, and clip fetlocks and think that does limit how many can catch a ride. One mare that’s really struggling with the gnats is on two scoops, everyone else is just getting one.

[Dr_Doolittle]

They seem to have a range of products - I wish they had a “trial size” so I could determine whether it works! Every horse is a bit different.

Worth a try with the garlic again, I guess. She was a little picky about eating it last time, with her other powdery supplements that might be an issue (BM doesn’t add water to feed), tail is already banged - unfortunately she lives in a high grass pasture with one other horse who is WAY taller than she is - and who has a much shorter tail! So the ticks are going to hitch a ride on guess who…

[findeight]

Garlic was effective for me years ago in So Texas. As in ME, not the horse, never needed to try it. It repells blood suckers ( hence its popularity against vampires), they can smell it coming off the body and avoid that target. Hanging the bulbs around also repells them as well as most people and possibly keep chatty know it all barn mates away:).

No idea if the stuff with the odor removed sold as a heart and circulatory supplement for humans would have the same effect on bugs or not or if that is available in an equine version. Maybe, like sounds some animals hear we don’t, there could be enough of a trace odor they smell that we don’t. I dunno. Try it. it’s cheap enough

I no longer present myself as a bug buffet by fishing at dawn and sunset, ditched that when I ditched an ex hubby…

Funny story. Once moved to a just opened barn with lovely pastures that were farm fields at times over many decades. Horses came in with an odd odor in early summer. Not unpleasant at all but out of place in a barn. Looked in the pasture, couldnt see anything. After a few weeks, the stuff got big enough to see…green onions. No ill effects and there wasn’t enough of them, miore of a side dish, apparently tasty as they nibbled up the young shoots as quick as they coukd find them. Only problem was wanting to get some vingarette when mucking the stalls.

[chipper2128]

If you’re talking about the Equiderma Lotion, I have used it for over 8 years now, especially on insect bites. We don’t have many ticks where I live, so I don’t know about that. If I find one of the horses scratching his neck or butt, I can usually find a bite under the mane or wherever. I apply the Equiderma Lotion directly to the bite/bump and it seems that the itching stops immediately. You have to apply it once a day or at least every other day until the bite is gone. I also use it for other skin issues, or spots that I just don’t know what caused them. It has chlorohexidine in it, so it works for a wide range of culprits.

I also use the Springtime Garlic and not sure how much difference it makes. I’ve been afraid to stop it just in case things could get worse and they seem to like the taste.

I also use Hilton Herbs Bye Bye Itch supplement and Lotion. I think the supplement really helps against the summer insect sensitivity, but you do have to use it all year (lower dose in the winter).

[3rottenponies]

I haven’t bought any Equiderma fly spray yet this year, and really need to. I have one horse in particular that really seems to itch less with it…I am assuming because of the aloe. I picked up some Ultra shield at TSC two weeks ago when I finished the last of my Equiderma from LAST year, and it is repelling flies but I do appear to have a more itchy pony.

I haven’t used the lotion for itchiness per se, but keep it around for scratches, cannon crud, etc and really quite like it.

[Simkie]

@Dr. Doolittle

Worth a try with the garlic again, I guess. She was a little picky about eating it last time, with her other powdery supplements that might be an issue (BM doesn’t add water to feed), tail is already banged - unfortunately she lives in a high grass pasture with one other horse who is WAY taller than she is - and who has a much shorter tail! So the ticks are going to hitch a ride on guess who…

Bummer! Maybe the frontline spray would help? And/or keeping her tail slick with cowboy magic or show sheen? People around here say it works!

[Dr_Doolittle]

Worth a try with the Frontline - and is the Equiderma available through Amazon? (Off to check )

[Dr_Doolittle]

And YES! it is indeed on Amazon - and eligible for Prime!

@Simkie - I have the Frontline for dogs (tried it on my Whippets but they had an allergic skin reaction, so obviously didn’t use it and have a bunch left over); in your experience, what is the appropriate “horse dosage” based on the vials I have? (1.34 ml.)

I’ve used Equispot in the past and it already came in the horse dosage size.

[Simkie]

@Dr. Doolittle

@Simkie - I have the Frontline for dogs (tried it on my Whippets but they had an allergic skin reaction, so obviously didn’t use it and have a bunch left over); in your experience, what is the appropriate “horse dosage” based on the vials I have? (1.34 ml.)

This stuff is what I’ve always read about using: https://www.chewy.com/frontline-spray-dogs-cats/dp/119351

But the spot on? Hell, if ticks in the tail are the problem, is just put a whippet sized dose at the tail head. Maybe test a small amount first?

[Dr_Doolittle]

@Simkie

This stuff is what I’ve always read about using: https://www.chewy.com/frontline-spray-dogs-cats/dp/119351

But the spot on? Hell, if ticks in the tail are the problem, is just put a whippet sized dose at the tail head. Maybe test a small amount first?

Thanks, and yes - that sounds like a plan!

She is so preoccupied by her itching tail that it takes me much longer than usual to groom her since she wants me to hold her tail to the side so she can scratch it with her teeth, then keeps twisting her body around until I address the itchy tailbone. Oy vey. Poor horse

[Paige777]

I’ve used the Equiderma lotion but without much luck. Wouldn’t say it’s any better than anything else I’ve tried.

[Simkie]

@Dr. Doolittle

Thanks, and yes - that sounds like a plan!

She is so preoccupied by her itching tail that it takes me much longer than usual to groom her since she wants me to hold her tail to the side so she can scratch it with her teeth, then keeps twisting her body around until I address the itchy tailbone. Oy vey. Poor horse

Awwwww Poor girl. Benedryl gel might help? I have a couple with itchy bits from bugs and sweat but they’re more of the “back up slowly hoping you’ll get the message” sort. :lol:

Report back on the frontline! I hope it helps!

[Peggy]

On the recommendation of a poster in another thread, I bought a bottle of IBH spray and srarted using it at the beginnings of the week when my horse started rubbing the area under his neck with the small bumps that I assume are an insect allergy reaction. I applied if sparingly, concerned that he might be allergic to something in the spray.

Bumps in the area were gone the next day, even where I hadn’t directly sprayed. Small areas of rubbed shin are healing.

I’m guessing that it won’t be possible to use it at shows given some of the ingredients.

http://kineticvet.com/equishieldibhspray.html

[DawningDreams]

It may be worth giving her some Zyrtec to see if it helps with the itching - at least until you can find something that helps. I want to say it is like 2 tablets per 100 lbs but I’m not sure if that’s right. I just bought mine from Costco in a 400 count for cheap.

[Dr_Doolittle]

FTR, I did try giving her Zyrtec last year when this happened – it was a little hard getting all the pills into her and it didn’t seem to have much impact on her itching – but I can try that again along with everything else. Goddamn ticks :mad:

[Xanthoria]

@Peggy

On the recommendation of a poster in another thread, I bought a bottle of IBH spray and srarted using it at the beginnings of the week when my horse started rubbing the area under his neck with the small bumps that I assume are an insect allergy reaction. I applied if sparingly, concerned that he might be allergic to something in the spray.

Bumps in the area were gone the next day, even where I hadn’t directly sprayed. Small areas of rubbed shin are healing.

I’m guessing that it won’t be possible to use it at shows given some of the ingredients.

http://kineticvet.com/equishieldibhspray.html

Not sure if it was my recommendation but I used the ointment version and it’s very effective. Not cheap!

[Calamber]

Okay, this may be a little off the beam but I will give it a go. Has this horse been power packed in the last year? I would put out a Sulphur block for her, if she has some minor internal infection, she will go to that block. The background reasoning is that inflammatory responses to insects are related in part to allergies to the insects, (although of course you have to deal with the insects themselves), which points sometimes to diet or imbalances in the horses system. . For the bug part, I used a product called Belly Balm down the centerline of the belly and sometimes also used the clear Swat, and/or Zinc oxide to simply cover it in the case of the crevices of the body like between the legs, in and around the gelding sheath, or the mare’s udder, if there was a big problem with bugs, the Belly Balm works like a CHARM for the belly line and it stays on for at least a day sometimes 2-3. https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail…b-735d461107a6

I also used various kinds of mineral supplements, one from a product that is made by Dynamite which is a dolomite clay I think, (some itchy horses really like that and I fed that by hand), just offered as a treat, if they need it, they will lick it. Dynamite also has a volcanic mineral mix with which some horses really thrive. I was taking care of a horse which had a horrendous sweet itch problem, lumps all over and the itchiest skin I have ever seen, she was mauling herself by biting her skin because it hurt so badly, I thought she might also have had a skin infection of some kind so I bathed her in Eqyss fungal shampoo. In about a month of the whole program, offering the different minerals (Sulphur block, Cobalt block for B-12 insufficiencies, white and red minerals blocks, the PowerPAC, the vet just used Quest for that), and the two baths, she was almost wholly healed from the lumps and itching except for the worst area which was from the bite abrasions.

On the question of the sweet itch, I was working from the thought that I was dealing with Neck Threadworms, and was working from a protocol developed by a member of the COTH, there is a sticky or favorites archive with that title, take a peak at that if you can find it. I also had gotten a briefing on an article from a woman who had researched the subject at the University of Washington’s veterinary sciences archives. She came across a research paper from some veterinarians who had done a study of horses in I think it was Finland?, where they tested horses in the wild who had sweet itch and those who did not. They found that the horses with sweet itch there were low on Copper, so the red salt block takes care of that if that is a deficiency. The horses will go to the salt and the minerals they need to make up for the regional lack.

[danacat]

A product called Bite and Itch Lotion (topical anesthetic/antihistamine/pain reliever made by Weeks&Leo) was recommended on a sweet itch remedy site – I tried it and it does really work.

[Bedina]

While a barn mate loves Equiderma lotion and has great success with it, it didn’t do anything for my mare. I have had success with both Bug Check (higher than maintenance dosage) and with the Coat Defense paste and powder .

Previous horse would get absolutely terrible sweet itch from late spring through early fall. I wish I had known about Bug Check as I would have tried it, but what did ultimately work was a generic antihistamine (we used CostCo, and I believe it was the generic Zyrtec - Aller-Tec), plus Calm Coat spray.