hi all

wiggy123

i am new to this thread
i keep horses--hav 18 in total at mo! mix batch--mares/foals/older stock...draughts+connemara's

Two questions....

any1 any cures for sweet itch..or tips with dealing wit it?

also--lamintis....ideas +tips on preventing /curing it?

thanks

fits

Sweet itch: Keep horses in a windy exposed field away from stagnant water and consider putting a fly rug on for the summer months. There is a special sweet itch injection you can give but I dont know much about it and believe it is expensive. Steroid injections are effective also, but obviously you cant inject steroids if the horse is competing.

Laminitis: The most important thing is to keep weight off the horse in the summer months. You can do this by strip grazing, using a grazing muzzle, exercise. Whatever, its really important to keep them in optimum condition. Also keep them on poor grazing if possible. Rich grass is very bad for laminitics. It is also really important to keep the feet in good condition and trimmed correctly. If the horse has a history of laminitis, you can monitor the digital pulses at the back of the coronet. If the pulse is heightened you need to take steps immediately. The crest can also give a good indication. If the crest is hard, an attack could be imminent.

It is believed laminitis originates from malfunction of the gut so some people feed supplements like pink powder for optimum gut function.

wiggy123

seen a prog recently..rte1...gioodapp..
said lamintis...
epson salts+baking soda on hoof for a few weeks--works

fits

^ I say bollocks to that, to be quite honest with you.

wiggy123

well..what they did years agao--when horses were used on the farms!
from my knowledge some of the cures+ways are better than present day solutions+cheaper!
we hav used old remedies b4 for our horses...worked a treat!

Jemmy

wiggy123 wrote: »

epson salts+baking soda on hoof for a few weeks--works

Well could be worth a try ya never know, can't do any harm anyway!
Used old remedies once years ago on a pony I had worked wonders.

Wicked

on sweetich get a rug and avon skin so soft lotion or summer freedom.

on laminitis, it can really only be helped by regulating the diet and farrier visits.

Jemmy

Wicked wrote: »

on laminitis, it can really only be helped by regulating the diet and farrier visits.

This would be my advice, but the old remedy might be worth a go also.

doctor evil

Some old remedies work and some are just old wives tales. Would you bleed the horse if an old timer told you it worked?

Laminitus/sweetitch are conditions and are managed. They cannot be cured.

Some horses can can allergy to Silver Birches which can present as sweet itch, a skin scraping can confirm this. SI can get worse each year.

marlie2005

Summer Freedom is a great product but it will only work properly IF the horse is washed beforehand with an anti-bacterial shampoo, and then rubbed into the mane and tail. It helps protect the mane and tail for a longer space of time and saves you using too much cream.
just my input...

Jemmy

doctor evil wrote: »

Would you bleed the horse if an old timer told you it worked?

Yes of course we would! :rolleyes:

Wicked

i'm contimplating clipping my lad's mane off this year completely. Ever other year i've left it on but i think it might be better to clip it off.

would ye advise against or for this on a sweet itch pony?

MDFM

Wicked wrote: »

i'm contimplating clipping my lad's mane off this year completely. Ever other year i've left it on but i think it might be better to clip it off.

would ye advise against or for this on a sweet itch pony?

a number of years ago i had a small pony with terrible sweet itch..so i ended up clipping the mane off completely before the spring came around..worked out well actually and what also helped him was once the mane was clipped to the butt, i regularly smeared his mane with vaseline..it also seemed to help him and soothed the itch. it also stopped the skin from drying up and cracking, worked really well from what i can remember.
though, its hard to know - before this pony, i never had experience of sweet itch, so i ended up trying everything to try keep it under control and this was the only thing that worked for me..

Wicked

MDFM wrote: »

a number of years ago i had a small pony with terrible sweet itch..so i ended up clipping the mane off completely before the spring came around..worked out well actually and what also helped him was once the mane was clipped to the butt, i regularly smeared his mane with vaseline..it also seemed to help him and soothed the itch. it also stopped the skin from drying up and cracking, worked really well from what i can remember.
though, its hard to know - before this pony, i never had experience of sweet itch, so i ended up trying everything to try keep it under control and this was the only thing that worked for me..

thats the way i am thinking also but my other half is telling me he'll look terrible with a docked mane, personally am not a fan of them either but if it helps keep the sweet itch under control i might consider it.

workaholic2

yup, taking the whole mane off is a HUGE advantage, and really does help with sweet itch. We had a pony at our yard that had awful sweet itch, really aggressive, and they tried everything with him, but then got rid of the mane, and he's like a new pony now! much happier! at the end of the day, it shouldn't matter if a hogged mane suits them or not, or if it looks terrible..it works and that's the main thing

troyton

We also found Summer Freedom very good for sweet itch! Definitely made a difference when applied regularly.

silverfox88

laminitis is the WORST!!
my aged pony (who has since passed away, age not the laminitis!!) suffered horribly from two summers ago, as the grass was particularly rich at the time, came back from three days holidays two weeks after getting her to discover her standing as far back on her heels as she possibly could and barely able to walk. brought her in off grass (obviously!) and had the vet up, who was very pessimistic due to her age and recommended i have her put down, but i looked at the little palomino face and knew there was no way!! i put her on bute for the first week while the pain and inflammation were really bad, and got bags of ice from the pub and stood her in four buckets of ice for 15 mins each day - bute will get rid of the pain, but the ice is great for easing inflammation. she was fed the bare minimum - u feel truly evil but it has to be done! the thing is that i found that if you put in the time and effort with laminitic ponies there really is no need to buy over-priced equestrian products; i fed her bran mash, into which i mixed lamimix (ok, the one exception) which is about 28 euro a tub, but lsats FOREVER, and then a squeeze of golden syrup - she refused to eat the bran at first until i started adding the golden syrup. as soon as the pain started to ease up and she was able to walk about a bit more comfortably, i turned her back out again into a grassless paddock, and then began lunging her as soon as i could, as the exercise and the cut down in feeding are the best thing for it. all in all, it was only about a month before i could ride her happily again, which isnt bad considering the chronic state she was in before. oh, also, the farrier left her only with front shoes as laminitic ponies' feet tend to grow faster so this helped wear them down a bit!
so basically, the big ones id recommend are the ice, the bran and the lunging. also, not to freak out when the vet gives you doom and gloom news! blaze recovered and went back to being an absolute loon, which is pretty good for an 18 year old pony - she was still jumping courses and pulling my arms out of the sockets trying to gallop off for a good year after this. best of luck with your horses, just remember not to panic, laminitis isnt the end of the world!!

s.behan

Try D-Itch powder added to feed twice daily from about march onwards for sweet itch, i swear by it, my welsh cob suffered badly with it, I started D-Itch last march and it was brilliant he only scratched a little bit at the bottom of his mane but even that wasn't bad. I'm already stocked up for this year.

EGAR

I have an OTTB and she does great on a herbal mix called *stop itch*.

I've got nothing against *old cures* but some stuff is downright stupid, like burned oil for mange (dogs).

Also (tried and tested) dock leaf is BRILLIANT to draw an infection out of the hoof.

convert

EGAR wrote: »

I have an OTTB and she does great on a herbal mix called *stop itch*.

I remember hearing about that years ago - my mum and grandad used to swear by it.

EGAR

It's from UK, I buy it in the local vet supply shop. Expensive but a bucket lasts ages.

gigawatt

just with regard to the comment about bleeding the horse, I've never seen it done but if anyone has read James Herriotts books in the all creatures great and small series ( these books recounted his experiences as a vet) he tells the story of a horse that his collegeue Seigfried bleeds as a last resort and it actually worked much to the disbelief of Mr.Herriott ( herriott never considered himself an equine vet)

Red_Marauder

gigawatt wrote: »

just with regard to the comment about bleeding the horse, I've never seen it done but if anyone has read James Herriotts books in the all creatures great and small series ( these books recounted his experiences as a vet) he tells the story of a horse that his collegeue Seigfried bleeds as a last resort and it actually worked much to the disbelief of Mr.Herriott ( herriott never considered himself an equine vet)

Bleeding is an archaic and totally rejected procedure that does not work! I think I remember the story you're recounting, but really, it has no place in modern equine health.

There are lots of therapies out there for sweet itch and a lot of them very good,but none will cure it long term because it's an allergy.

Use fly sheets, bring horses in during the evenings to monitor and control the itching and by all means use veterinary products. Speaking of old remedies, the only one I have any real faith in when it comes to horses is Stockholm Tar, can help in sweet itch cases.

convert

I don't think gigawatt was encouraging the use of bleeding, I think they were just recounting some of the old 'cures' or treatments which were used a long time ago.

On an aside, blood letting or bleeding was frequently used by doctors (and I assume vets, also) as a treatment for all kinds of ailments, from fever to relieving blood loss, especially for women haemorraghing after childbirth.