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Itchy belly causes horse to lie on ground to scratch it...

Horse Care
#1

A young horse in the barn has been lying on the ground several times a week to scratch – once we investigated this – what appears to be dry, itchy patches on his midline. At first I thought it was a dirty sheath, and that may be part of the problem, too, but it seems mostly to be these patches.

They are difficult to see directly, and I’ve used a mirror and flashlight to get a look at them with not much luck, so they are difficult to describe. Are there any treatments? He also lies down in the stall and scrubs back and forth there as well. And he LOVES it if a human does the scratching for him.

Does anyone know what has caused these patches? Any suggestions to clear them up and end the itchiness?
Thanks, thanks, thanks…

#2

Allergies :frowning: try to keep the belly clean and I usually put desitine on the patches… But it is a curse…

#3

Look at possibly allergies.
We had a horse that would scratch himself any place he could reach, any one way, including scratching his belly on the ground or bushes.

That was decades ago, there was not much to be done for him.
Finally our vet started giving him a shot of long lasting prednisone every spring.
That kept him from scratching himself bloody and his skin looking like bare elephant skin.

Rarely some summers he needed a second shot later.
That shot kept his itching under excellent control for the many years we had him.

OP, check with your vet about looking at allergies.
There is so much more known today and better ways to keep a horse comfortable.

Your vet will also check for this:

http://equimed.com/diseases-and-conditions/reference/onchocerciasis

#4

I have an itchy horse. Vet was out, determined allergies. He had sores just like your horse. I would clean the area daily with a rag and cool water, and then apply anti itch cream (for people) to the spots. To get a good picture of the areas, we used a cell phone. It is hard to see the bottom of the belly!
My vet offered the predisone shots, but I didn’t get them due to the increased risk of laminitis in my already neuro/ataxic horse. I gave Cash Benadryl daily through the worst of it, and that seemed to help. What made the biggest difference was starting him on Flax seed oil this spring. He gets 2 TBS daily, and even though he is still itchy at times, his skin looks so much better. He’s a bit ‘greasy’, but he hasn’t gotten but one small sore on his belly this whole summer. I will cut back on the dose once it cools off.
Neutrogena body oil, a small amount (don’t remember how much) mixed with water in a spray bottle seemed to calm his itchies and help with dandruff. That I could put on daily if he needed it.
Cash’s biggest issue was flies/midges. I made sure he had a mask, was sprayed regularly, and got him a fly sheet with a belly band to help protect that area. That also helped.

#5

Could be Sweet Itch. Allergy to the saliva in mosquitos and midges. Internet search will bring up tons of info.

3 Likes
#6

Yup, as others have said Sweet Itch allergy to gnats. I have one that has it so severely that he needed a change of venue. (Hence why he is with me, I’m leasing as a buddy for my other horse.) It can get progressively seriously worse, so don’t ignore it.

Here is what has helped mine go from bloody raw sores/unridable to an almost scab free/show worthy horse over the course of 2 season. The first season was a learning year regarding just how aggressively this must be treated. Second year, I had most of my ducks in order and he is a totally different and much more comfortable horse. So these are things I do that help:

  1. Changed diet to support a stronger immune system. He gets 1/3 cup ground flax AM & PM, MSM, and spirulina. As an easy keeper he gets no grain, just ration balancer. I like Essential K. No NSC hay. Although he is technically not IR or Cushing according to blood work, I do have him on an IR supplement that is high in magnesium and vitamin E as he has had one lamanitic bout and visually shows that he could be IR down the road. As my old-fashioned, highly experienced vet says, “treat the horse in front of you, not the lab result.”

  2. No turnout around dawn or dusk (so no 24/7). Mine goes out approximately from 9/10 AM to 6/7PM depending on the season and the gnat/fly pressure. You won’t easily see the gnats, but they are there, especially in the wind-free periods at the beginning and end of daylight.

  3. Full fly sheet, neck, and leg covers during the fly season. Start early so that the allergy itch cycle never gets started.

  4. Fly spray any unprotected areas. Have had the best luck with Bite-Free or Mosquito Halt. the “natural” ones sadly don’t seem to do the job well for this.

  5. Keep the horse VERY clean. Horse urine is supposedly 200X more attractive to flies than other scents. My boy likes to sleep in his pee spot, YA. So he wears a waterproof rain sheet overnight, every night, in his stall. It seems a bit crazy, but honestly, this has seemed to make the biggest difference of all. Even though it’s a PITA, in the big picture, it is much easier to hose off a sheet every few days than bath a pony daily (which really isn’t great for their skin anyhow).

  6. Benadryl, as needed, once or twice daily if I see signs of itching. You want to break the cycle so he doesn’t rub himself raw.

  7. Spot treat any scabs with Desitin/zinc oxide, aloe vera gel, or other anti-itch slave (Ukele has a good one). I will actually treat any bug bite welt that I see as it will turn into an itchy scab within days if left to do so. Sometimes I apply witchhazel to the welt to bring down swelling and that often makes it go away sooner and with less itch.

  8. Occasionally, I will do a betadine scrub if he gets a lot of bite on his legs. It cleans everything and seems to have a somewhat repellent effect for a couple days. Scrub lesions to remove as much built-up scab/scuff as possible. I don’t have any data to back this up, but I truly believe that the exudate continues to have the allergen in it and perpetuates the itch cycle. Once the lesions are well cleaned and dry, they heal and go away much faster. I had a short period this summer where the flies were getting at his legs at night too, I think. I ended up cutting the ends off DH’s old tube socks, putting them on pony’s legs and then covering them with his leg wraps. The sock are hard to get over the hoof, so they stayed on 24/7 and actually gave a nice soft layer under the fly wraps. Helped clear things up relatively quickly - wraps couldn’t rub, flies couldn’t bite his legs. I did have to check them at turnout/turn-in to keep them from bunching or getting pokey particles in them, but it worked really well.

I’ve also recently been told a product called Muck Itch works really well. Haven’t had occasion to try it yet. I think it is basically tea tree oil and chlorohexidine.

Good luck. Sweet Itch is a PITA and takes a lot of work, but once you get a routine, it’s manageable.

4 Likes
#7

^^^^^^^ Excellent post and advice fjordmom ! I had a horse with sweet itch many years ago. He became my life’s work! Very bad problem until I learned how to control it. He wore a full boet blanket most of the time.

#8

Look into deworming for Neck Threadworms, they can cause a whoooole bunch of unhappy itching! My rescue pony had them, and was so much better when I stuck with the deworming protocol. (Double dose with Equimax, and keep dosing every 2 weeks until symptoms get better/you kill off the larvae.)

1 Like
#9

Fabulous timing! Dove JUST started doing this. She is SO itchy, the poor lady. Why on earth would it just pop up now? If it were sweet itch, wouldn’t it have been a problem all summer? She never did this in CO or MN!

#10

Yes, you’d think so. But my sweet itch guy (who never had it in California where i bought him) suddenly developed it in NY---- after three years of being here. Go figure! The timing made no sense to me either.

#11

Permoxin is cheap, mixes with water and won’t burn.

It can be used on dogs and horses for flea allergy and Sweet Itch.

It can NOT be used on cats.

It also kills ticks.

If the horse is down to blood. Start with spraying or using a brush and brushing the whole horse 3 times a day. Allow to dry before putting a rug on and no you don’t need to use a hood, you can get away with a neckrug. There is instructions on the bottle of what to mix with other than water if you want faster drying.

Work youself down to twice a day, once a day, once every 2 days, once every 3 days, once a week.

I am in an area rife with these insects so I put it on after I ride and I try to ride daily. Not that that happens every week.

A side affect of this is a long mane and tail.

#12

^^^ Hard to say. My sweet itch pony apparently didn’t have a problem the first 2 or 3 years at his owners’ location, but then developed it very badly. It may be a question of the immune system finally being overloaded by multiple exposures and becoming sensitized.

Also, there are numerous sub species of cullocoides gnats. Perhaps your horse is more reactive to one than another. A fair amount of anecdotal evidence says moving the horse just a few miles away can be a game changer. It is known that the gnats are weak fliers, much more than 5 MPH wind and they are not nearly as prevalent. My site is very breezy (near Lake Michigan and on a high plateau) so I think that helps a lot on most days. On the wind-still days, I do notice much more bug bite reaction and itchiness, as if the bugs were getting at him more. On those few truly breezeless days, I tend to keep turnout shorter even keep him inside.

Around here at least, we still have plenty of flies due to the extended mild weather. Normally by now, we’ve had several killing frost but this year no at all yet. Flies are still active.

Simkie, maybe in your area gnats are active too. Have you changed the hours of her turnout? Have you had more rain that may have caused larvae to hatch?

Another thought is that the itch may have nothing to do with the flies but rather Dove is itchy because she is sweating under her winter coat. I had this problem with my other (non-sweet itch) pony all last summer and into the winter. Turns out he was not thermoregualting properly. He continued to sweat even when the winter temps arrived. At that point I insisted on blood testing. He turned out to have a borderline low thyroid level and borderline IR. (He’s 23.) Got him on a very low dose of Thyro-L and inappropriate sweating stopped almost immediately. He also stopped itching. With the unseasonably warm weather that we continue to have, both of mine sweat just a little on the warmest days, but not to the point of acting itchy. Horses, if it isn’t one thing it’s another. Got to love them though!

#13

Agree it sounds like sweet itch. Topically, I used Equate brand diaper rash paste that is 40% zinc oxide and Triple Antibiotic Ointment. The diaper rash paste stays on the skin and keeps the flies off.

After reading the COTH thread on Neck threadworms for THREE years, I finally double-dosed my little Arab (he was only 13.3H) with ivermectin. That was the end of the sweet itch for the rest of his life - no kidding. But his was caused by Neck Threadworms which are microfiliae from the bite of midge flies.

Those little soandso midge flies are still busy where I live -----

#14

This could also be the Onchocerca microfilaria that are known to concentrate in the ventral mid-line of affected horses and itch like the devil.

De-worm with Ivermectin, now and again in 4 months.

#15

If you need an antihistamine that controls itch without sleepiness like Benadryl, use 0.2-0.4mg/kg of Cetirizine / Zyrtec, which you can get cheaply online of at Costco.

a fly sheet with belly band is key for my guy, as is keeping his sheath very clean, swat and fly spray, and a course of allergy shots.

#16

Fly sheet with a belly guard. Cover them to stop the contact!

#17

Keeping the horse in stall at worst times (dawn, dusk) and using SWAT helped my mare with Sweet itch. Also, flax, MSM in feed, fly sheets, ivermectin, as others have said.

#18

Usually from biting sand gnats. First time I saw someone’s horse do this I thought it was colic. SWAT works, and so does spraying before turnout and as Alpha said, keeping in at dawn and dusk.

Original formula skinsosoft mixed with white vinegar and water keeps every bug off of your horse.

#19

I agree with most everything except for trying to increase a stronger immune system. Horses with sweet itch are NOT immune compromised. They have an over-active immune response. So increasing the Immune response ( which would increase histamine production) is a big no no.

my guy gets flaxseed for the omega 3 for anti-inflammatory.

my boarding barn added garlic one summer and it was one of the worst years for him itch wise ( that is because garlic is an immune booster and increased his reaction to midge bites and increased his histamine levels)

#20

Yes, you are right. I did not word that so well. Really aiming for a balanced immune system and reducing inflammatory response. The diet components that I mentioned do help reduce inflammation.

I do still think it is important to have a healthy immune system too though. If a horse really rubs those sweat itch lesions raw, they are vulnerable to developing cellulitis, which is a bacterial issue, often spread by flies. It’s a short cascade from there to laminitis. Don’t ask how I know. It’s a nasty intertwined web that makes for a fine balancing act.

Thanks for the note on the garlic. Haven’t use it, but always sat in the back of my mind as a potential fly repellent. I’ll be forewarned and avoid that now.

1 Like

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