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  Discussion on Itchy yearling
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 6, 2002 - 2:01 pm:

Hi
I recently purchases a 1yr old paint gelding. I had noticed his tail had been rubbed but for the most part it wasn't bad and he had a wormie belly. After being wormed and in the barn for about a month he has started to iche. He was destoried numerous bucket before we relized what he was doing. He flips the bucket up and rubs this back with it. He also rubs the sides of his neck on EVERYTHING! The tree outside, the half wall, other horse and so on. My vet gave him one steroid shot. Today the vet was out to see another horse and got to see him in action. He now feels the shots should be an on going thing.
What type of side effects will this cause? This may sound trival but will it stunt his growth, he's a small yearling as it is. What could be causing this. I feel horrible for him, he is still shedding out could this be part it?
There are no bumps or bleeding. However I bathed him last week and when I brushed him yesterday he still has bad danderiff. Also I have recently put him on cocosoyia oil. Honestly I think he may have been iching before but could that intensify it?
Help!!!!

Posted on Friday, Jun 7, 2002 - 7:59 am:

Rachel,
You are confusing your steroids. The steroids you read about that athletes take and stunt the growth of adolescents are anabolic steroids. The glucocorticoids are the steroids that are used for their antiinflammatory actions and should not stunt the growth of your horse. However if your vet feels this is the best course there are better ways than frequent injections. Read the article on Scratching and Rubbing, follow the links that seem to pertain to your horse and also read, Equine Medications and Nutriceuticals: Anti-inflammatories, Steroids, and Arthritis Treatment: Overview of the Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs.

If he was itching before feeding the supplement it is probably not related to the problem.
DrO

Posted on Monday, Jun 10, 2002 - 10:56 am:

Hello again,
I read the Glucocorticoids an overview of the use of antiinflammortory steroids. In there it states "When administered to young, growing animals, glucocorticoids can retard growth". The steroids my vet was going to use is a powder that will be feed to him in his oats. Are there different kinds?
Also, since I have not owned him long, I'm not sure if he was like this before. Is this something he could out grow? Could it be seasonal? Since he has nothing showing on his body would you say its allergies?
***I also want to thank you, this website is incredible, it has so much useful information. I do have a great, but very busy vet, so I've really enjoyed the oppertunity to educate myself and realize I'm not the only one out there with strange horse illnesses***

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 11, 2002 - 7:07 am:

Excellent Rachael,
I should read my own articles before I reply so I do not appear to contradict myself. In human children on long term glucocorticoid therapy for incurable inflammatory diseases like asthma or juvenile onset rheumatic arthritis it is believed that glucocorticoid therapy may result in stunting. Though no one disagrees that this can occur the degree of this effect is controversial and with alternate day therapy, even if long term and high dose, thought to be minimal (J Rheumatol 2000 Aug;27(8):2018-24 High dose, alternate day corticosteroids for systemic onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Kimura Y, Fieldston E, Devries-Vandervlugt B, Li S, Imundo L).

There are no studies in horses and stunting has not been described with the use in young horses. Currently we believe horses would probably behave like humans to exposure. For short term or episodic use like you describe I do not believe anyone would consider stunting a risk. This does highlight an important principle however: the use of this and any medication should be carefully considered as to the benefit vs the risk.

Yes there are different antiinflammatory steroids that vary in their potency and duration of action. See the blue chart in the article you reference above.

As to whether this is seasonal or soemthing he grows out of depends on the diagnosis which I cannot make from here, see Equine Diseases: Skin Diseases: Overview of Scratching & Rubbing for a list of possibilities, some of which are treatable.
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 11, 2002 - 10:51 am:

Dr O,
Thanks for the info. I spoke with my vet and we had decided to do allergy testing on him. Since my Vet said he has never seen a horse rub so intensly. However for the past 3 days he has stopped iching!!! We don't know why but he has completely stopped!!! So we're just going to keep an eye on him and hopefully it's just a spring thing!
Thanks again for all you help!
Rachel

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 12, 2002 - 6:26 am:

If the itching returns and before you conduct expensive allergy testing you need to understand there is very little useful information gained from them a. In general horses with allergies do react more on these tests but they often react to things they are not allergic too and not react to things they are allergic to. In scientific parlance there are both false positives and false negatives making the results difficult to interpret.
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 12, 2002 - 10:11 am:

DrO
Thank you so much for that info!!! I had no idea I just assumed it would give us the correct answers and put an end to it.
Thanks for all your help
Rachel

Posted on Saturday, Jun 15, 2002 - 7:55 am:

hello rachel, i have a saddlebred gelding who has an alergy to corn. i went to the barn oneday ( he was abt 2 yrs old) and he had his eyes open really wide as i looked closer i noticed his eyes were swollen to the point that his eye lashes were scratching his eyes ( poor guy ) luckly for him and me he let me cut his eye lashes off with a pair of clippers then i called the vet and he said he was having an alergic reaction but to what ??? he sugested alergy testing but also mentioned as dr. o mentioned that it would not nessicarily be conclusive and its expencive so i underwent my own alergy testing. i stripped his stall down to dirt and fed him organic grass hay slowly i added bedding and diffrent grains one at a time first oats then barley then corn thats when i got the reaction it took a couple of days but it definately was the corn i took it away as soon as i got the reaction and he got better i was lucky and he was alergic to something tangible and the reaction was obvious maybe it could work for you too, keep in mind though it could be anything down to the rat control stuff they have in the grainery where they bag the grain good luck
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