Check with your vet about starting the bloodwork and shots. After an emergency call to my vet due to massive hives etc, she recommended the tests and shots now in the hopes that by next spring we will have effected desensitization to most allergens. The initial blood work (we are in MD) to ascertain the many things to which he is allergic was $350. The vet said to keep him on Zyrtec in addition to the initial desensitizing shots perhaps until next spring.So he will probably get daily Zyrtec plus weekly shots until next spring. Then maybe we can go to just the shots. Each vial is $350 and when we finally reach maintenance dosage in a few weeks should last around a couple of months.
1 Like
Is that a real concern in your area?
If it’s too hot for a sheet during the day I really think you’d see a huge difference stalling during the day with a fan and doing a sheet with a belly band at night. Maybe you’re somewhere even hotter but by 7-8 pm here it’s dropped to 85 so a rinse and then sheet and in the morning when she comes in around 8 there might be a tiny bit of dried sweat from the last bit of heat the night before but she’s dry and cool. She also completely rubbed out her tail head one year and would absolutely rub huge area raw if not in a sheet and on a night turnout routine.
1 Like
I ended up taking my mare in for allergy testing. She’s been itchy since she was a yearling, but this year-- omg-- she was a demon with the itching. She itched her beautiful, long forelock right out. I had her on Zyrtec and it didn’t do anything.
I’m waiting on the results right now. I just hope it’s not 50% behavioral because she’s also Beelzebub when it comes to attention. Barn supposedly caught her on the cams not itching and standing like an angel… 
Look up Equine Neck Threadworms here on COTH.
My horse does the same. We are on 2nd year of treatment (super easy) and definitely making progress. He’s not biting his legs anymore.
1 Like
Things were a little less red and she was a little less angry this morning with the first dose of steroid on board. Huzzah.
Lol yeah it really is. Crazy, right?
Ah, fab, thank you so much for this pricing! Yeah, we’re definitely going to explore this. I hope it helps your guy.
Interesting! I guess no surprise that the Brits have some good stuff. Bless you for signing up for this on purpose. I’m not sure I would 
Man, that’s something. Wow. Nice to know it’s out there as an option. I’d kinda worry she’d catch one of those straps on something. I hope we never get to this point, but will keep it in mind if we do!
I’m so sorry about your jogging track. Horses This is why we can’t have nice things!
This year has been hell. I’m in the same boat–this horse has always been itchy but previous summers were manageable. This summer was tough, but I had a handle on it until riiiiiiight now. I hope the allergy testing angle is a good one for you!
I’ve also found this stuff kinda helpful for the tail…it might be something to try for her forelock?
https://a.co/d/2KBzpc4 (the cream)
Definitely worth a shot. We did this last year with no real change but it’s low hanging fruit. Cheap and easy.
1 Like
Just a heads up for those using Nextimmune for the allergy shots.
I used them with my mare…they were very effective initially and we made it to the end of the first set of 3 vials.
Then I ordered the maintenance dose vials. As we got the max dose of the last of the original vials my mare started to get very large welts at each site. Contacted Nextimmune, and emailed a vet back and forth about how to manage. They gave me a modified schedule. Tried that, but we continued to have bad reactions.
Had to switch to the new vials (as the other ran out)…still reactions on the modified dose. Looked at the vials closely (as she was definitely reacting more to one shot).
Turns out they left out many of her allergens on the maintenance vials…took a while to get them to respond but it turned out some of the allergens were on backorder…so they just didn’t add them to her new vials. They also didn’t tell me that they were leaving stuff out…and they didn’t adjust the pricing either!!
I also contacted them for more help with the dosing and about adding the missing stuff back in and they were not responsive.
I stopped the shots at that point…which is a shame as I do think they helped a lot in the beginning. But the reactions were not worth it…and the way the company handled the missing content in the shots was concerning.
Wow that’s frustrating and concerning!!
I had a boarder with rub him self raw (neck mane, chest, belly, tail etc.) sweet itch. This was 20-25 years ago so… I ended mixing what we called witch’s brew based a few recipes. Witch hazel and skin so soft were the main ingredients IIRC. It helped.
1 Like
I’ve recently gotten some maintenance vials with no problems. One did take a little longer to ship because of a supply issue, but it is marked with all the correct stuff in it.
I was also having issues with local reactions for a day or so on the highest concentration on maintenance. They didn’t recommend that I change the dosing. So I split the 1cc dose into two 0.5cc doses and do both sides of the neck. Much less of a reaction. Of course, if I go to shallow and get some into the skin instead of all under, there can be more of a reaction, which sometimes happens if the horse isn’t great about holding still.
My other horse started them as well after having super itchy neck issues last year where he rubbed himself basically bald and nothing else was working (tried the neck threadworm protocol also with no change). He seems highly reactive to gnats in particular but his bloodwork was kind of not remarkable. They made up a serum anyway with all the bug things and the other borderline environmental things. He just finished the first round of vials. My main issue with him is now that we are on the 30 day timeline, he will start rubbing more the last week or so before the next shot is due. I need to see if there’s a way to dose him more frequently if this continues.
