Just got my Nextmune results back: my guy is allergic to all the weeds in my pastures. Not surprising since we are having daily rainstorms and the weeds are crazy and spray has not been effective. It also says he is allergic to…PALM TREES (no vacations for you, bud) and cottonseed (?), soy (I don’t feed soy as I already have a soy allergic horse), FLAX and OATS (what?). Also a common grass mold.(also not surprising as we have broken all rain records this year). No hay allergies, thankfully. No pine allergy (so I can go back to his regular shavings). I haven’t talked to the vet yet, but I do want to do immunotherapy. I’ll probably do the drops if he’ll take them easily.
Do you know what the scores mean? My guy’s positives are just over baseline. The most allergic one is flax at 177. I am guessing that it’s not any one thing but a combo of things that is causing his response.
If you are into podcasts then there is a really good one by Feed Room Chemist called Allergy Testing. It explains the values and why every horse has a ‘positive’ result for flax.
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can you post the results? Unless numbers are in the 1000 range, it’s not an actual allergy
MOST horses show as “allergic” to oats and flax, and they aren’t. Cottonseed is another common hit
If you have a lot of low “hits”, consider the idea of leaky gut, rather than allergies
Now I see this LOL that’s not an allergy
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But couldn’t they add up? He never had hives before this summer of daily rain. My pastures are full of weeds because we were unable to spray until just the last week due to the constant daily rains. I believe it’s all of his reponses to weeds added up. Not just one. Now we are struggling with hives that steroids will only keep at bay for about a week. He is on 46 daily zyrtec too.
no, they really don’t all add up, especially when most of them aren’t even around the horse - cottonseed for example.
Lots of hits is really more indicative of leaky gut, which then causes all sorts of inappropriate reactions because proteins are leaking into the blood stream, and have no business there, so the body sets up defenses that look like allergies.
Triple Crown, Bluebonnet, and others, have some good articles on leaky gut in horses
Some of them are low, like the common feed ones. And I wouldn’t be surprised if mosquitos were positive if we did a skin test checking delayed response. Considering that the red head gets sweet itch, extreme itchiness all over, IBH, and mast cell type asthma, my vet and I are inclined to interpret even some of the lower environmental hits as significant for him, as his symptoms are worsening over the years. He is already soy free, and I’m going to hold off on other dietary changes for the time being. All the forage he eats was negative.
In comparison, the positives for the other horse were fewer and more in the 100-300 range and my vet considers him basically negative even though he has facial nerve symptoms, sneezing, and hives.
Has anyone done dermal allergy testing? One vet I spoke with recommended serum testing but the local equine hospital said it’s pretty non-specific and dermal is the way to go. Thankfully my guy’s issues suddenly disappeared in July but I’m thinking ahead in case they come back.
I have a consultation set up with an allergist on 8/22. The problem is my insurance. I am needing her to set up the skin testing during the crossover period. So we will see. I am willing to go there because this summer has been HORRIBLE. He has been covered with hives and cold hosing takes them down enough so that he doesn’t throw himself at the wall. He’s had two dexamethazone shots, but I don’t want to risk foundering him. I will say this is the most unusual weather year for us–we are breaking all records for moisture and I have weeds I’ve never seen before. Because it rains every day (and never forecasted accurately) it is hard to spray. The spray needs 8 hours to be rain proof. I have done all sorts of elimination trials (including hemp bedding at $25 a bale, and then find out that hemp is the only grass he’s allergic to). This morning, the hives were coming back, then it started raining and they went away. I am 100% convinced that it is pollen. He sneezes a lot when I am riding him too, and rubs his face on his legs. I am pretty sure that my 23 year old liver chestnut mare has bug allergies as she will get a hand sized hive every time she gets a bug bite. She is clean due to daily hydroxazine and Smartbugoff. My chestnut 3 year old has not had one bug bite all summer (also on Smart Bugoff), and has no response to anything. The black 5 year old is suffering.
ETA: my chihuahua has been wheezing all summer and he is on a half tab of Zyrtec BID and it really helps him.
A boarder at my barn did the dermal testing for one of hers, and he’s responding to allergy shots.
I have read that both have their limitations, and dermal is not any more reliable for insects than the blood test. But it may be more useful for other allergens. And it can be more complete. Like, friend’s horse is allergic to cats apparently, and that wasn’t an item included with the blood analysis.
Yup. I did it in 2016, did the customized shots which maybe helped a bit. Environment management is tough - she’s better indoors than out but hates being in so she gets to go out every day all day weather permitting.
I do the best I can to keep her as comfortable as possible - feeding just about every supplement purported to possibly help allergies, and changing bedding around until I found something (dust extracted straw pellets) that we could both live with, and feeding zyrtec before working her on days the air quality is bad. Jiaogulan, chondroitin and glucosamine are an everyday, twice a day, year-round thing served in a 1/4 cup of wet feed once in the morning by barn staff and once about 20 minutes or so before I work her in the evening. All the other crap (spirulina, etc.) goes in her night feed.
Back to the testing - it found a lot of things that are completely out of my control environmentally. There’s just nothing I can do about ragweed and goldenrod short of keeping her indoors. It also showed some interesting things. The lump that came up on her neck patch for mosquitos was obscene. The allergist asked me if she was always covered in lumps in the summer. I responded no, I had spent several years training in a literal swamp so was aware of exactly how much fly spray was needed for the stuff to actually work and that I had carried that knowledge over to my current non-swamp boarding situation. He was gobsmacked. I remain eternally broke because of the amount of spray I use, but hey, my mare is lump free 
Things that showed up and were a pain in the ass - apples and carrots. Ok, well she’s a choker anyway so that just meant less chopping for me and more mints for her.
Something that didn’t show up - flax. Through experimentation, she does better off of it completely.
Ash and pine? Not much I can do to help those hence ALL the supplements.
More things showed (orchard grass - again, not much I can do about that for her outdoor rations, but I’m careful to order tim/alf for her indoor hay) but were less “angry” so they’ve slipped into the background. I’ve got the whole thing on paper somewhere, but it’s upsetting to look at* so I don’t.
She’s 17, has asthma, looks and behaves like a 10 year old, and still loves to work, so something in the crazy management is working … for now.
I will say I had a hell of a scare last summer with a URI that would not die and my current vet was convinced was all part of her asthma and allergies. Finally knocked that sucker down last fall with extended abx and this allergy season has been a breeze so far. This time last year I was considering putting her down because she was so unhappy at not being able to work 
So, uh, do the testing. Do what you can with the results. Feed ALL the supplements lol. Manage what you can as best you can. And knock down any infections that may be making things worse.
*my vet at the time upon receiving the report: “She’s pretty much allergic to life.”
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A gentle reminder: Benadryl and hydroxyzine can make it harder for horses to sweat normally; if you think your horse has anhydrosis, just don’t go there. A lot of vets don’t know this! Zyrtec is a different class of med and shouldn’t cause this problem.
My itchy mare is on Apoquel right now, which is helping a lot, but it’s VERY expensive. It’s also off-label for horses, which means I can’t get it through an online pharmacy; I have to get the vet to order it for me and then pick it up.
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Yeah, I had read that about Benadryl and since my guy does tend to stop sweating (not this year though!), I never went there.
I did Zyrtec last spring for probably a month or more, and it may have been a coincidence, but my horse seemed to start having trouble urinating. He’d stretch out and try, get nothing but a dribble. His stall stayed bone dry all day (not like him). I cleaned his sheath thoroughly, he was drinking plenty of water…just couldn’t pee. I figured I’d try stopping the Zyrtec to see if it made a difference and he started peeing normally again.
Just anecdotal and could be a coincidence, but I thought I’d share in case anyone else notices something similar. I have steered clear of Zyrtec since. Knock on wood, this has been his best summer in a long time. I think there are several factors, but the one thing that seems to make the biggest difference (discovered by adding and then removing and then adding back) has been CocoSun oil for my horse. I don’t know why, but tons of flax, CocoSun granular, Canola oil…none of it keeps the itchiness at bay. CocoSun oil…bingo. Works like a charm.
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unfortunately it does in a few cases, so just something to watch out for especially if the horse is already a borderline non-sweater. It IS the safer option for sure, just not a no-risk option
Thanks for the correction. Benadryl set off my mare’s first non-sweating episode. Two years later, she doesn’t sweat much but has measures to keep her cool.
I removed oats and flax and he is better! I still want to do immunotherapy and am waiting for the vet (they are all too busy right now). I ordered a new ration balancer with no oats, flax or soy: Hygain Meta. I plan to add some rice bran pellets, alfalfa pellets and switch all of my horses to this so that there’s no oats or flax in the barn. It is shocking how many supplements have flax, including immune therapy supplements!
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Somewhat of a side note - does immunotherapy in horses tend to work? I did it for several years for myself and eventually gave up. I know some people have success but I get the impression it’s only effective in some humans, also.
Me experiment of 1 (one) horse - not enough effect to continue the expense.
My vet says he’s seen enough relative success stories that when he’s got a bad case (like my horse), it’s worth a try. The company says a “success” might mean less or no steroid use, things like that, not necessarily total resolution of symptoms.
My neice’s horse had hives so bad that his throat swelled up. They did the skin allergy testing and immunotherapy. He was allergic to alfalfa, timothy, several trees, cows, and lots of other things. The immunotherapy totally cleared it up. My sister gave him subcutanous shots in his chest for like a year. With Nextmune, they say you never can stop the therapy. This I don’t understand. My brother had successful immunotherapy and eventually he did not need the shots anymore. I thought the whole point was to desenstitize them to the allergen, not to give it the rest of their life?
