How much do you give a horse?
Spirulina did absolutely nothing for my horse, and changed her behavior in odd ways. I tried a couple other things, “natural” and not, ditto.
We’re going the allergy shot route now. I am trying to keep her off steroids, in any case (easy keeper, from a breed that is IR/founder prone), and she was miserable enough last summer that I almost allowed the vet to give her dex.
My mare didn’t have a good experience with spirulina either. Didn’t seem effective and made her IR worse.
Dried nettle leaf works a lot better for her pollen allergies.
I just thought I would update this thread since its be revived. Based on the amount of products I have tried in the last few years, here are my suggestions.
Spirulina: 2-3tablespoons a day: This seems to help with inflammation and hives. It doesn’t seem to help breathing related problems.
Allergy Shots: Has made a world of a difference. Has gotten rid of his hives and has helped with his breathing.
Vitamin E: 5000 IU Seems to help with breathing.
Flax Seed: 1 cup/day helps keep his coat from getting itchy.
You could also try Herring Oil. It has helped.
For the spirulina…I buy the tablets and feed them in stud muffins.
Anyone have a horse with itchy ears? My poor guy is rubbing the base of his raw trying to relieve the itch deep in his ear. He lets me stick a finger inside and rub and he’s in heaven.
Started spirulina over a month ago and he hasn’t improved. He’s also on Legends Omega Plus, which is loaded with flax. His body is the usual itchy, like along the midline and on the withers, but his poor ears are making him miserable. Now trying extra strengh hydrocortizone ointment inside on the itchy bits, and Desitin or RepelX lotion on the fuzzy parts to keep the bugs out of them. This seems to be seasonal but no one ever mentions ears when discussing itchy horses.
I’m glad this thread was revived. My donkey has major spring allergies- wheezy breathing, runny eyes, and itching. I’ve been handling it with flax and MSM, which both seem to help considerably. I’m definitely going to try the spirulina and some of the other suggestions with her, because I’m not too keen on the idea of allergy shots for a donkey!
Why is my companion donkey the only one needing a gazillion supplements? :lol:
[QUOTE=Texarkana;8158778]
I’m glad this thread was revived. My donkey has major spring allergies- wheezy breathing, runny eyes, and itching. I’ve been handling it with flax and MSM, which both seem to help considerably. I’m definitely going to try the spirulina and some of the other suggestions with her, because I’m not too keen on the idea of allergy shots for a donkey!
Why is my companion donkey the only one needing a gazillion supplements? :lol:[/QUOTE]
:lol: I feel ya! Honestly though, allergy shots only cost me $12/mo. A lot cheaper than everything else! The test was the expensive part.
We had a horse for 4 years that had major allergy issues. He was tested (blood test) and was on shots for the whole time we had him. We tried all sorts of topicals to control the itching, fly sheets and masks all summer. Treated with the NTW protocol several times when out breaks seemed to be Onchacerca (diagnosed by a vet). He was on Spirolina for a while as were our other two horses also. After several years we tried Hilton Herbs Bye Bye Itch Supplement and Lotion. That was a turning point for him. Finally we saw some improvement.
Yes, Pony Baloney, he had very itchy ears and would rub the insides raw when he could. He finally would let me rub some of the BBI Lotion in his ears and that soon stopped most of that itching.
As far as Spirolina goes, I stopped feeding it several months ago to our two horses because I became concerned with how much Iodine they were getting. Spirolina can have a significant amount of iodine in it:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/495545-spirulina-and-iodine/
So, check how much iodine your horse is getting from other sources. Too much iodine can cause other problems. There are other threads on COTH about that.
It may not have been directly related to the Spirolina, but both horses developed blotchy looking coats where there would be small areas (about the size of a nickel) where the hair would be gone or very thin. After stopping the Spirolina, both horses coats cleared up within a few weeks.
As far as the allergy shots go, if I was doing that again, I would get a skin allergy test done first. Yes, I know they are more expensive and very few vet dermatologists around. But, I am sure the blood test had many false positives.
