Treatment for hives

[Bristol_Bay]

Hello, everyone. I’d appreciate some wisdom from people more experienced with hives than I am.

My retired 22-year-old TB has had a serious breakout. I treated him with two doses (11 pills) of Benadryl but it had no effect. The barn owner borrowed some dex in pill form and I’m waiting to see if that works.

My only experience with hives with this horse is that they pop up one day and go away the next, and this has only been a handful of times.

He did recently move to a retirement barn, and has been there for over a month with no change since then of feed or bedding, so I’m stumped as to the cause.

Mainly I’d like to hear if dex did the trick, how long did it take, how many doses and how often.

TIA

[MorganMaresVT]

Sorry to answer without answering your question, but could a newly emerged biting bug be the cause? If so, your treatment might just be full coverage fly gear.

Speaking from experience with a mare who is extraordinarily sensitive to New England black flies (some places call them gnats). They emerge this time of year and stick around until around July 4th, and are especially bad during wet years like this one. During this time, I have to keep my mare covered top to bottom because she looks like she’s broken out in hives all over her body from their bites. I don’t treat with any medication, getting out the fly sheet with neck and belly band keeps her protected and the hives are gone the day after she’s fully covered.

Anyway, hope you find something that brings him some relief!

[Bristol_Bay]

Thank you for your insight.

The hives first appeared on Saturday, an unusually cold day for us in SoCal. Flies were not an issue until a few days later when the weather warmed up. The retirement barn is in a dryer climate than we have here, and he lived at that barn for two years back in 2021-2023 with zero hives. So if it’s an environmental cause, it’s a mystery what it could be.

[LCDR]

Has your vet seen the horse, or are you just throwing drugs at the problem for now? Sounds to me as if an allergen needs to be identified. Could be anything from insect bite hypersensitivity to a fly spray allergy.

[NaturallyHappy]

I’d be a bit worried about giving a 22 year old dex w/o veterinary supervision due to a risk of laminitis. Have you tried hosing her body off?

[Bristol_Bay]

Yes, I have. No change.

I’m not going to keep throwing drugs at him. My question was that he got some dex pills this morning, so when should I expect to see results, if any? And what’s the usual dose/frequency?

[SBrentnall]

I’m also in SoCal, and my retiree in Hidden Hills used to get hives every spring. We never did find the cause, but adding APF to his feed solved the problem and prevented them from coming back.

Horse Immune Support Supplements

[Bristol_Bay]

Thank you for this!

[Bristol_Bay]

I’m happy to report that the dex pills did the trick and by dinner time he had only a few bumps left.

By the way, searching this topic was a little tricky with the common use of “hive mind”

[Showbizz]

We have two allergy-prone horses. Both have different triggers.

We give 5ml 4mg/ml Dex on day 1 (orally or IM), 4 on day 2, 3 on day 3, …

If we get a BAD outbreak (which generally doesn’t happen), we use a different protocol.