I recently moved from high mountain desert to south eastern Alabama (gross) for a few years for work an my horse isn’t acclimating particularly well. Aside from stopping sweating, he’s proving to be a sensitive red flower.
He has hair loss in a couple places, mostly his lower flank and lower girth. I have not ridden since being here (two weeks) as I’m trying to let him acclimate. Also his chronic scratches is flaring up and hind legs are mildly stocked up and sensitive.
Help??
This is pretty normal for a lot of horses.
Anhidrosis sucks. I’d start with the barrage of supplements out there. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but it’s worth a try. Also, if he’s not on it already, get him on a good electrolyte. That makes a big difference for my anhidrosis horses.
Otherwise, you’re probably going to have to ride out the systemic reactions. They will probably be less “next year” once he has had a full run of season to adapt. Protect against bugs. Keep him clean. An antihistimine or steroid might help. There are some coat calming products on the market that might help with the hair loss, although I can’t point to one that works best.
Ideally, it would be great if you could get him inside under a good fan during the day and out with fly sheet/boots at night, if he’s not already doing that.
Good luck!
I am in central Alabama and this summer sucks. Well…all summers suck in Alabama. My old Cushings pony is having an especially hard time in the humidity. Along with anhidrosis and inability to regulate his temperature it appears he has developed pasture heaves. So he goes out for a short time in the early morning when I clean his stall and stands under a fan in a stall the rest of the time so he can breathe. This morning he spent 15 minutes outside before he decided he wanted back in. I have never had the heaves problem before but I think it is because of all the rain and humidity and broken mowers so the grass got tall. My other mare is having some skin issues which is normal for her. I try to keep her dry and the fan running in her stall so she can come out of the heat and hot sun.
Besides fans I am not sure what else to do since we cannot seem to get out of this weather pattern.
I don’t think flysheets at night will work here. the humidity is horrible and right now we are only dropping to the mid 70’s at night. Late afternoon and evening thundershowers every day in most places, if not rain, then 90% humidity. I think clothing will be like wearing a wet t-shirt all night.
Totally fair. Same reason I rarely use them.
He just started on An Apple a Day electrolyte. I’ve never been much a believer in standard electrolytes because the amount provided doesn’t even touch what they lose in sweat. But…. He’s not sweating so 
He actually eats it and I’m willing to try anything.
I have Sweatwerks on the way.
I’m getting him a high velocity fan put up today along with a bug sprayer. He won’t keep a mask or boots on but he seems far less concerned about the gnats on his face than I am.
Definitely not. I did t realize that was a problem so I bought him a full fly ensemble for down here and only used the first night here. He was drenched the next morning; what I would give for him to sweat like that again 
I have read several times that really hot and humid areas of the world are really unsuitable for any type of high performance horse. According to M. Horace Hayes lots of good English TBs were exported to India, and they all failed at stud, all the TBs there failed to produce a suitable race horse.
I am a handicapped rider. I ride patient lesson horses (well usually they are patient.) Lately our southern central part of NC is in the midst of an almost mythical summer, hot, humid, brisk to violent rain storms, even more humid, hot, hotter, hottest.
Splash, my current lesson horse, has “told” me that the weather is really not suitable for man or beast and that I can totally forget about getting any active movement with impulse from her.
And you know something? She is 100% correct not to obey my driving aids because of our weather right now. I look for just a hint that she is exerting, then I relax and reward and we go back to plodding around the ring.
Same here, I’m not an “electrolyte” person. I feed a very small amount of loose salt, but that’s the most I will supplement in feed. But with my non-sweaters, true electrolytes (with more than just Na+ Cl- or K+) have made a huge difference. Apple A Day is fine; my non-sweater wouldn’t eat a full serving but even a half serving a day and a little extra salt helped her stay comfortable and even sweat a little.
When I kept my older non-sweater on electrolytes year round, he started sweating again the next summer. One AC helped him, but I didn’t need it anymore after a year of elytes.
Could his hair loss be caused by scratching itchy spots? My horses sometimes scratch themselves bald, and sometimes they get a mild skin infection. If the skin looks like it could be infected (scabby, oozy, rough) I coat it with Biozide gel or triple antibiotic gel and sometimes Desitin to keep flies off.
As for the anhidrosis, I feel your pain. One of my horses stopped sweating just last week during the last two days of that hellish heat wave. I found him blowing like he had just run the Belmont and his coat was dry whereas he’s normally soaked in this kind of weather. I hosed him down several times a day and gave him electrolytes. And then, on the last and worst day of the heat wave, a thunderstorm popped up over our heads and it rained hard and fast for at least an hour. We had over two inches when it was done. That storm cooled him down better than anything I could do, then a cool front passed through and lowered the temperature and humidity. He’s ok for now, but it’s predicted to heat up again next week.
I took all the fly gear (mask and leggings) off my horse during the worst of it because I would rather deal with conjunctivitis than heat stroke. I also considered turning him out at night, but the problem with that is I don’t have a cool place to put him during the day. My “barn” is just a glorified run-in shed with stalls and it heats up like an oven even though it faces south because on these hot days there is not even a whisper of breeze. The best I can do is put him in the corral–it’s completely shaded but still ghastly hot when there’s no breeze.
So I guess other than what you’re already doing you should do a rain dance and pray for a cold front. I don’t mean to be flippant about this. This weather is miserable for our horses, and it could easily turn deadly.
Hair loss is a symptom of anhidrosis as well. My gelding’s face is pretty much bald at this point and he’s got a very thin coat over parts of his body.
Add the gnats to the awful heat and humidity and it’s really a perfect storm of misery for all things equine. This summer has been the worst in a while. Even the horses that sweat fine at my barn have been struggling with the heat.
I’ve done all the supplements plus Guinness and acupuncture and EquiWinner patches (twice) and so far there is still no significant sweat. And this is a horse born and raised in this climate.
Stalled under fans during the day, lots of hosing down, and night turnout with a good dousing of the most effective fly spray you can find as well as something like Swat to coat the vulnerable itchy places (I use it under the belly/midline, either side of sheath, outside of ears (because my fly mask doesn’t have ears) and around eyes if I’m not using a fly mask for whatever reason.
Bathe regularly (I do weekly) in a gentle shampoo, I like Equiderma’s Neem Shampoo. Use things like Coat Defense products and Equiderma products to help with itchiness and bald patches.
It’s an awful summer. Truly. It will start to improve eventually. We’re actually having a break from it finally up here in NC. I’m praying the horse resets to sweat mode after this. If he doesn’t, it’ll probably take going through winter and starting all of the remedies, supplements, and treatments early spring for him to have a prayer of sweating through next summer.
He normally dislikes “things” on his feed and strongly says no to any powder. But he’s eating a full serving with no issue. So I’ll keep doing that!!
Just to make everyone feel better (well, probably not). . . A meteorologist in Springfield mentioned that a town north of Jonesboro, Arkansas had a heat index of 140 F one day last week. So it could be worse (unless, of course, you live in northeast Arkansas).
He’s not particularly itchy, aside from his legs which are also sensitive at the same time. Initially I thought allergies, which is possible, but sounds more like another symptom of anhydrosis.
Dear god. I ran in to a colleague yesterday from Arkansas and he mentioned it’s worse there. I sort of nodded and let it go but I didn’t believe him 
I’m thankful my time here is only temporary but damn I was hoping to get some riding in while down here. I certainly won’t push my luck until he acclimates, the weather breaks, or both. I can’t even turn him out for an hour without him blowing like he’s going to die 
Poor guy, I shocked his system coming down here. I didn’t think through it being this miserable. I wish I was doing two winters and a summer, rather than the inverse. But it is what it is. I picked the timeframe
I run a long long extension cord out to my hastily built shady corral where I set up a high powered sealed fan and keep moving it around the dim witted horse. Hosing off with cool water every hour or two helps also.
I find it unsettling that this is even a possibility. I think we’ve been as high as 117, maybe 120 once? But 140? Jeezus no. Nuh uh. I’d have to move.
If you both can manage to live until winter, you will love winter down here. Except for some rain the weather is great for riding. The bad news is that due to global warming, fall comes about in November. October - the nights might get cooler. You might get a few days in the 20’s at night in the winter but most days warm up to above freezing. If you live that long.
Why, Oh why, is it not global cooling? I could love that.
I mean, I was hoping to do some riding before winter why can’t we learn to fly things in a more pleasant climate
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