Severe Hives

[WillowHoney]

Looking for new ideas, and recommendations for chronic hives in my horse, Willlow. They’ve been consistent for 3 months, we’ve tried the initial treatments: antihistamines, dex, prednisolone, done allergy testing, allergy therapy shots, tried different beddings (wood shaving variants & rice hulls), removed all elements of feed etc. that are on her “high” allergen section, switched her stalls/areas, no sprays, etc. Cannot seem to figure out how to help my poor girl.

Looking for outside of the box thinking, remedies, ideas, etc. She has been on steroids now for 2 months & they have stopped completely clearing the hives; I only give her the ‘larger’ dose (as directed by vet) when the hives turn into huge swollen welts & when I’m faring her airways may become obstructed or swollen. Separately i’m I’m wondering if the steroids have suppressed her immune system so much that that are inadvertently now not helping and could just be adding to our problems (and we all know the long term effects they can have.).

Current supplements we are trying (started 4 days ago):
-SA Powder by Kinetic Vet
-Hygain Zero (one of the only feeds I can add her medicine to, that she will eat and is on her ‘safe’ no allergen list. It also has probiotics & Vitamin E in it.
-Aloe Vera Leaf Juice

[Bluey]

Sorry, no real help, that looks alarming.

50+ years ago we had a dark bay TB that looked like that.
We quickly found out he was allergic to alfalfa, only horse I ever knew that was.

Even if someone feeding gave a horse alfalfa and then walked into this horse’s stall with other hay, just being still some leaves on the person feeding would give this horse monster hives all over.

We kept him in a corner stall and anyone taking care of him had to wipe down everything before walking in there.

Don’t know what happened after I left, but horse seemed fine other than hives all over, no itch or trouble breathing.

Hope you find a way to manage, you have allergy tested him I assume, skin and blood tests?

[Weezer]

ok, you might think I’m crazy here but I’m throwing this out because it seems like a desperate situation. Lots of animal owners in my community work with an animal communicator who is somehow able to connect telepathically with the animals without actually being with them. I have used her myself with great results and I know of a couple people who have worked with her to get the animals to identify what they think causes pain or allergic reactions. In both cases, it really helped the owners narrow down the cause and find a solution. My science-based perspective doesn’t understand or want to believe this but the results that I have seen are undeniable that this woman connects with animals and she tells me things they say that nobody else would know. If I were in your position, I would try that.

[sheltoneb]

I use Benadryl for these types of situations. Have you tried it?

[WillowHoney]

@Weezer

s in my community work with an animal communicator who is somehow able to connect tele

I don’t think you’re crazy at all! I have actually opened up my mind to might have to go this route eventually (i’m like you- i’m very science based). I will literally try anything to help her.

[WillowHoney]

Yes, we have tried a few different Antihistamines. Unfortunately, to no avail.

[WillowHoney]

@Bluey

and then walked into this horse’s stall with other hay, just being still some leaves on the person fe

These are good notes for sure. I will ask our feeders to completely separate her hay bales from the feed cart with other hays.

Yes, we’ve done skin & blood testing; and have removed all types of allergens that she tested positive for. Even allergens that she was a ‘medium’ response to.

[Ergots]

Are you very sure that there is no cross contamination happening of something she is allergic to? I worked with a horse that was having the same symptoms, he looked just like your mare.
We did all the test and many drugs / supplements. Horse was a pin cushion! Turns out he had developed an allergy to SMZ/TMP. He was coming in contact with microscopic amounts that were probably in our lab and feed room as well as buckets and waterers , even though we cleaned and scrubbed daily.

[WillowHoney]

Oh jeez!

So far, yes we have removed anything on her list. Although, it’s a fairly generic list (plants, food, hays, etx). It did not list any types of drug / supplements. Sounds like I need to have her tested more extensively.

[Peggy]

My understanding is that the allergy shots take some time to have an effect.

My vet advised feeding omegas with extra DHA to my allergic, itchy horse. I use the HorseTech flax with DHA boost.

[trubandloki]

I experienced this one summer with one of my horses. In the end the thing that helped the most was a fly sheet and a fan in the stall. Best we can guess was that for some reason that summer my horse decided to react to some bug in the world and turn into a nasty case of hives.

[Nova2000]

Is it possible it’s something in her shavings?

[WillowHoney]

We have tried three different types of bagged shavings; and now she is on rice hulls. :-/

[No1]

What do you wash her with and how often? How often do you clean her brushes, does she have her own brushes? What do you wash her brushes with? What do you wash her fly sheet or saddle pads with?

Is she on some kind of oil supplement?

[4horses]

Could this be some sort of severe bug bite allergies? If so I would give the horse a very thorough bath and stall in front of a fan.

Next, I would look at changing feed and bedding. If you use shavings switch to something else. Or no bedding at all in the stalls. You can use no bedding in the stalls and sweep up wet spots with some chicken feed thrown down and swept up. Or maybe a dirt stall?

It almost looks like she is rolling in whatever she’s allergic to.

[SusanO]

Yes I wonder about bug bites of some kind. Many years ago I was boarding and the horses developed hives one summer. Not quite that bad but still pretty bad. They were inside during the day and out at night and we were getting nightly thunderstorms. The vet came out and gave them steroids and the hives were pretty much gone but the horses came down with awful rain rot. It turns out the hives were a forerunner of the rain rot and the steroids caused the rain rot to go wild.

However after 3 months you would have seen this if it had been the case. If at all possible I think I would take her to a teaching hospital since it seems like you have covered all the bases except for insects. This is not a normal case of hives.

[lenapesadie]

Omg! I’m so sorry! That looks distressing. I hope you find a good remedy ASAP.

[PaddockWood]

Your poor girl! This started 3mos ago? How long have you had her and is there a history of hives before this?

IF you have no prior history then SOMETHING changed and is still happening. Gotta move to thinking like Columbo but we’ll find it.

First confirm if this really started three months ago with no prior hx.

[PaddockWood]

AND, is it possible to get her to another living arrangement ASAP? As severe as your hives are I’d be making that happen. I have a story of severe asthma attacks happening to my mare and ended up doing a second opinion consult which included my vet being willing to take her in at her house and the attacks STOPPED. I’d spent $4k in vet bills by then - Ventpulmin and emerg calls are expensive! It had gone on for some 4-5 months. Turns out the lovely facility was letting the hay accumulate outside over winter.

What looked fresh and beautiful on top was moldy underneath.

[moonlitoaksranch]

Wow! I’m so sorry! The only thing that comes to mind for me is the same as several other posters…it looks like she’s reacting to a bite from insects. Do you have gnats, deer flies, or other biting insects at high levels right now?