Because he’s “naturally plump,” he is always on the lowest of low-starch feeds. Right now he’s on Triple Crown Timothy cubes which is especially designed for cushings horses. His vitamin supplement has probiotics (Ukelele Grass Base), and he gets brewer’s yeast, which is a prebiotic.
Have you tried an antihistamine yet?
I was started on Cetirazine last week, funnily enough, by my doc for allergies and it doesn’t make me sleepy at all. Benadryl knocks me out tho.
its literally $20 for 500 pills. Should relieve symptoms right away.
Wow, that’s excellent. No soy, so little sugar. What a good diet for a fatty. :yes:
Did you say you’d tried flax in the past? I wonder if a really high power omega 3 supplement would help. The Equibase is also not a whole lot of Vit E…have you considered adding more? Santa Cruz is a great one.
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It doesn’t make you sleepy 
Definitely not in a way that Benadryl does. Something about it though, which I don’t quite understand, aids in staying asleep at night.
If I took one in the morning, I’d feel nothing in the way of drowsiness. If I take a whole one at bedtime, it does help me stay asleep, but I wake up with that gross brain fog that take a few hours to shake. If I take 1/2 at bed time, I still sleep better, but don’t wake up groggy.
Yes, he’s gets 1/4 cup of flax a day (has for a long time), plus a small amount of DHA.
He was on hydrozyzine for a year, tried a couple of different brands. (Equine allergist thought her brand would work better than the vet’s brand.) Neither helped.
I gave him a double dose of Panacur yesterday. Since the previous double dose of Equimax (two weeks ago), he had maybe three butt-scratching days. I’ll post back how this two weeks goes.
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He has now had three double doses. Day 1, double dose of Equimax. Day 14, double dose of Equimax. Day 28 Double dose of Panacur (because it might be pinworms, though he tested clean on a tape test).
Today is Day 35, and I watched him scratch both his butt and his neck today. (He went 8 days without scratching, which is really good.)
I am just at a loss.
Is it a clue that he seems a little sensitive around the area that he’s scratching? Like when I scratch/curry him there, he ducks away a little bit.
Biotin? Should I add biotin to his diet? I’ve googled. Healthy horses produce biotin in the hindgut and also get it from forage. His supplement has a small amount of biotin in it. It would be easy to add more. But everything seems so random.
Yes he could definitely be sore from scratching. Have you been cleaning him up between his legs and sheath area on a daily basis still?
I’ve also read that they sometimes want to push their butts up against things and rub due to discomfort in back or hocks etc. I’m pretty sure my horse does it only because of build up of ANYTHING in that area. Have you tried spirulina? Herring oil also really helped my horse.
" [h=3]Supplements that May Lend Support[/h]
A number of studies have confirmed the value of omega 3 fatty acids in horses with seasonal allergies. According to the NRC Nutrient Requirements of Horses:
Supplementation of horses with recurrent seasonal pruritus (“sweet itch”) with large amounts of flax seed (1 lb/1000 lb horse) was associated with a significant decrease in the allergic skin response to Culicoides extract, suggesting a possible benefit of flax seed in the management of horse with this condition.
Omega 3 fatty acids are also recommended by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine who recently published a revised consensus statement about equine inflammatory airway disease:
Another way to modulate the inflammatory response is by supplementing the diet with polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids. . . .supplementing the diet with omega-3 fatty acids, in particular DHA or docosahexaenoic acid (1.5 g/day for 2 months), in addition to switching horses to a low-dust diet, was shown to provide more rapid improvement (within 1–2 weeks) in clinical signs of IAD and RAO when compared to only low-dust diet (at least 4–5 weeks).
Because MSM has a long track record of safe use in the horse and has been shown to be a potent antioxidant in horses, some veterinarians routinely recommend its use in seasonal allergic conditions of the skin and respiratory tract. Other ingredients reported to be of benefit include adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American Ginseng, Astragalus, Siberian Ginseng, and others; spirulina; and turmeric (curcumin)."
Yes.
Yes. Two tablespoons a day for a long time.
He gets 2 1/4 cups a day, and has for a long time.
He gets DHA every day, in addition to the flax. And healthy horses should be able to convert dietary fat into DHA, so, theoretically, this shouldn’t be necessary.
Per Dr. Kellon’s recommendation, he gets chondroitin every day. I’ve asked numerous people to tell me if MSM might do something different than chondroitin, but no one has enlightened me.
He gets two tablespoons of tumeric with pepper and flax every day and has for a long time.
As you can see, this is like throwing very expensive pasta up against the wall to see what sticks. And if he is suddenly cured, I won’t know what cured him.
:lol: :lol: :lol: At least you still have a sense of humor about it 
MSM sure won’t HURT, and hell, it might help. It’s also cheap, yay! Might as well?
The fact he’s itching his neck now might actually be a sign you’re on the right track. Those threadworms get itchier when they “wake up” and you’re really pissing them off with the meds–but that’s kind of the first step toward making them dead. So keep doin what you’re doin?
Platinum Skin and Allergy helped mine as well. Active Ingredients Per 1 Scoop (3,200mg)
- Algal Omega-3 Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA)* 510mg
- Quercetin 105mg
- Purified Thymus Protein Complex (Bovine) (Thymic Protein and Zinc Gluconate)780mcg
Chondroitin sulfate is a naturally occurring sulfated glycosaminoglycan found in aggrecan. It’s a constituent of connective tissue and cartilage where it provides structure, resistance, and holds water and nutrients.
MSM is MethylSulfonylmethane. Improves joint mobility, assists in the formation of proteins and amino acids, connective tissue, hair, hide, hooves. MSM is rapidly establishing a reputation as a natural solution for many types of pain and inflammation.So two different things.
What changes, if any, were there between the 1st and 2nd doses? Ivermectin is usually effective against pinworms, so I’m worndering why ou thought it necessary to change to something else for dose 3 - just in case there was a resistance to ivermectin?
Hi, JB. You and I talked about this earlier in the thread. The scratches are mainly around his backside, so we thought it might be pinworms. Though before I started this, he had a clean fecal test and a clean pinworm tape test. So, I don’t have a lot of confidence that this is related to worms. But I thought we should do the worming protocol just in case.
And, yes, I know that theoretically a double dose of Ivermectin should address pinworms, but his allergist (and others in this thread) suggested Panacur (and other wormers).
In between doses one and two, he had just a couple of bad scratching days.
He used to scratch one day out of two (or more). Since I’ve started doing EVERYTHING in this thread (not just worming), the scratching is down to about one day out of five or perhaps once a week. And that was true between doses one and two. I didn’t see anything that made me think that neck threadworms were cleaning house.
When deworming, have you tried dosing the meds rectally? I know it sounds bizarre, but my vet recommended a dose of Equimaxx given normally and a half dose given rectally. Can’t remember if at same time or what… I want to say rectally was a bit later. The explanation was that the dewormer doesn’t always get as far as it needs to if given orally only. Sounds like with what you’ve been through that it might be worth a try.
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I don’t think they recommend that wormer-up-the-butt anymore. I have put a little around the anus, but I’ve not inserted it.
I’ve made an appointment with an alternative vet – acupuncture, Chinese medicine, etc. Please don’t anyone tell my husband! I really need a vet to focus on this with me. My normal vet isn’t going to.
Nothing to lose with some wormer rectally. It’s one of those “won’t hurt, might help” deals. And generic ivermectin is cheap enough you could do it several times and see if you get any improvement.
I had a similar issue with my mare this winter. She’s regularly dewormed and came back negative for pinworms but she kept scratching her butt to the point that it was pretty raw. I remembered a trick from when I was a kid and made up a mixture of baby oil and listerine. I sprayed that on the affected area once a day for a few days and it cleared up. Her tail has now grown back and the area that was rubbed raw has new hair growth as well. Might be worth a try?
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The vet who solved the digestive issues in one if my horses (after a few blood tests and shoulder shrugs from my traditional vet) is my holistic vet. She is a chiro acupuncturist and well versed on Chinese herbs. My horse did a two month course of Dr. xie’s herbs and the results were astonishing in a good way.
Further to this same horse — he is grain and soy sensitive, plus has seasonal environmental allergies that beget rain rot/itchy tail ---- I gave him 10CC’s of cow Vitamin A&D two weeks apart last summer and gone was the rain rot/itchy tail.
I, for one, will be very interested in what your holistic vet thinks – PLEASE update:)
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