So went to ride today and my horse’s body is covered in hives. It’s supposed to be an allergic reaction, but to what? His diet has not been changed, the plants/trees in the turnout paddocks are the same as always and he hasn’t been given any medication recently. Could it be the flies? Or this crazy heat period that suddenly turned into cold and rain?
Thought anyone?
My horse is getting some hives from the awful bugs we have here. Just walking to and from the pasture I got 16 bites!
My neighbor’s gelding has been having the same problem. We’re thinking it’s because all this rain has increased the insect population and he’s just getting bitten more. As with your horse, nothing else has changed.
I guess bugs must be nastier this year. I went through a lot of different fly sprays last year till i found one that worked, and still my gelding didn’t get a reaction like that. D@mmit I HATE BUGS!
/end vent
I have a horse who has never gotten hives until this year, and bugs are super bad. I say the problem is the bugs.
Ask your vet for some DEX to feed your horse.
Its so bad that fly spray doesn’t work. My horse is outfitted with a flysheet w/neck and a flymask. Otherwise he doesn’t go outside. He just runs from the bugs. It’s terrible
Yep the horse i ride is one big lump this summer. Poor guy! They’ve gone down a lot, but he gets them every summer from the heat, bugs and wetness, just not as bad as this year.
Pony got them something awful a little while ago and we couldn’t figure whether he’d gotten into ants or wasps or got a bad flake of hay or what. He was one big swollen mess. Cold baths helped him out and the swelling went down by day #2. Good luck, it’s no fun having them stand there looking all miserable.
My one mare has them bad, too, so bad I don’t even ride her. None of the others have them like she does, even the other TB’s. I’m calling the vet first thing Monday morning, so tired of seeing her suffer.
Same here in Costal/Central Florida. Yesterday morning she was also stocked up and a little tired. The hives go down as soon as she’s moving around for a few minutes out of her stall (so, not in pasture) and don’t seem to itch … She got a shot of Dex yesterday and bute for the next two days … it’s a call to the vet if she’s still NQR Monday.
Might get more insight on the Horse Care forum?
[QUOTE=PonyGirl15;7079057]
Its so bad that fly spray doesn’t work. My horse is outfitted with a flysheet w/neck and a flymask. Otherwise he doesn’t go outside. He just runs from the bugs. It’s terrible[/QUOTE]
same here!!! my poor mare has a flysheet and flymask on and the bugs still bite.
