Horse allergy testing results

[CindyCRNA]

There are some old threads so I thought I would start a new one. My guy had a horrible reaction to chiggers and gets welts from fly bites. On a whim, we did a blood draw for allergy testing. He is allergic to ALL of the insects and numerous other things, one being soybeans. Soybeans is in everything! He gets a good amount of Enrich 32 and has had soybean meal in the past with no issue. I am wondering if he is allergic to the plant leaves and not the beans? The company that does the testing sends you the allergy shots based on the results.

Anyone else do allergy testing?

[cayuse]

I did allergy testing on my welsh pony. He came up positive to almost everything but does not react to most of what he tested positive for. This was both the blood testing and a follow up dermal testing. BUT he DOES react to alfalfa and beet pulp which were two of the things he tested negative for. I’ve since had different vets say false positives a quite common, IDK about false negatives. We went on to do the allergy shots with the pony but he could not tolerate the series so we stopped. I have the best luck just treating the symptoms when he gets them and not worrying about triggers at this point because his results were so obscure.
So, if your guy is eating stuff with soy and is OK, he may have had a false positive on the test.

[ridernc]

As far as I know, the reliability of the blood test for food allergies is not to be trusted. My mare was obviously allergic to basically anything that bites. Her results came back positive for All The Bugs. I’ve been doing immunotherapy shots tailored to her insect allergies for about 10 months, and she’s had the best summer ever. No hives, no wheals, only a few regular bug bites that resolve in a day or so.

If you’re already pretty aware of the allergen, then I think immunotherapy can really help address those allergies. I would caution against including all of the blood test positives in your immunotherapy shots; I was able to speak with my veterinarian and have her formula tailored to bug-related allergies almost exclusively.

[sascha]

@CindyCRNA

I am wondering if he is allergic to the plant leaves and not the beans?

I can’t speak for your horse, and in your horse’s case, I’d probably ditch the soy completely to be on the safe side, but here’s a weird one -

I react like crazy to the fuzzy leaves and stems of tomatoes, melons, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, etc. I can eat them all no problem. And the reverse for kiwi fruit - I can touch the fuzzy little fruits no problem but I can’t eat them. I used to love kiwi

Allergies are weird.

To bring this back around to horse-specific stuff, I did allergy testing on my horse about 6 years ago. The series of shots I gave her afterwards helped her itchiness immensely. Unfortunately, she is, in the words of the vet I had at that time, “Allergic to life. Good luck.”

As far as insects - buy the good stuff and use it liberally. The allergy doc could not believe I didn’t bring in a horse covered in welts when he saw her reaction to mosquitoes. “I used to train in a literal swamp. I know how to apply bug spray. It costs a fortune to do it right.” “Keep doing it.”

Ditching soy shouldn’t be too onerous. A little research, a LOT of label reading, and a re-think of why you feed what you feed should get you on the path. I’m currently on this path myself - switching from a pelleted ration balancer to a ‘grit’ vitamin and mineral (no fillers or binders), and ditching the wee bit of Senior I feed and replacing it with beet pulp.

[luvmyhackney]

My pony was positive for pine, soy, and a couple of grasses plus a few bugs.

Allergy shots helped, but he still has reaction to soy.

It’s pretty easy to not feed soy. I do soaked beet pulp, alfalfa cubes, California Trace, and add Vitamin E and magnesium.

[JB]

@ridernc

As far as I know, the reliability of the blood test for food allergies is not to be trusted.

Amen.

And this is ESPECIALLY true if you’re pulling blood while they are in “crisis”. Leaky Gut can also cause a whole lot of hits that aren’t actual allergies, aren’t even sensitivities.

Plus, pretty much every test result from Immubiome this year has come back with horses allergic to flax and/or oats and/or soy, and that’s just not possible for them ALL to be allergic to those. Something’s not right with their calibration or something, which makes everything else suspect.

Unless you’re seeing hits in the 1000+ range, it’s really not an allergy. Yes, if you remove an “allergen” that has a 500 number, for example, and the horse improves, that doesn’t mean he was allergic to it. It very likely means that food’s protein(s) were therefore not crossing the intestinal barrier and causing an AI “allergy” reaction.

Skin testing is the only really valid allergy testing.