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Discussion on Tail wrap for sweet itch
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Member:
stek
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Posted on Friday, May 1, 2009 - 2:03 pm:
It's sweet itch season again and my mare is just beginning to rub her tail from it. None of the treatment/management things we have tried have worked, she does better in the barn at night but will have to be out this summer. She demolishes fly sheets by vigorously rubbing on trees, and by the end of the summer her tail is gone at the top.
I was thinking of trying a tail wrap on her at night, something like this: https://www.mustang.dk/images/800/00215.jpg
Seems it would keep her from damaging herself, but I don't know if it's safe to use for long stretches of time. Has anyone tried something like this or know how long it's safe to leave a tail wrap on?
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Member:
leslie1
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Posted on Friday, May 1, 2009 - 4:05 pm:
Hi shannon
I have one of those. I could never keep it on like it looks in the photo. I was afraid to tighten it enough to keep it up on the top. It allways seemed to slide down. But I probably keep it WAy too loose.
(My mare is having some weird reactions going on right now too. Ventral midline swelling thats gone on for a month and now bumps all over her neck. I dont know if its sweet itch or onchonerisis.( I wormed with Ivermectin b4 she swelled) She hasnt been itching her tail or mane, but has been rolling alot.)
I have been spraying her belly with Deep woods off and add a spray to her tail JIC it is sweet itch.
I bought this sheet last week.
It has a "supposed" belly band that I think needs some velcro added. The bottom half is very loose and flutters nicely in the smallest shift of air...dont know how well it would hold up with a horse that is rubbing tho.
Lemme know if you find anything that works
Leslie
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Member:
mitch316
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Posted on Friday, May 1, 2009 - 10:59 pm:
OK, let me give you a "cure" for what most people call sweet itch. I stumbled upon this last year, and with the help of Dr. O stumbled upon a cure, and it has since been 100% effective. Look under the article about treating pinworms, and use a wormer specifically for pinworms.
Well, you say, we follow a worming program and should not have pinworms. So did I, but hear me out. If it works, look past that,and you will hopefully be as surprised as I was.
Next, go to your farm store, or Tractor Supply, and look for a white labeled spray aerosol that has "Bovine and Equine Pinworm treatment" on it. It will be a smurf blue color when sprayed. Spray this on the tail, starting at the base, and go to end of the bone portion, both on top and bottom. Then also spray the anus and entire rear end, and the inside of the flanks. Repeat the spray daily until the can is gone. (about 5 days)
You will be surprised at how quickly both the itching and hair loss stops. The first case, which I posted on here with pictures, was a tough nut to crack, and every year would lose much of his tale. He was a very expensive and rare color of Standard Bred, and his owners were afraid of his stud fees taking a hit if every one who came out saw this.
This is not blue lotion, or blue liniment. it will say specifically for pinworms. BTW, pinworms are resistant to a lot of the more common wormers, so that is why you use one specifically for that. You can find them at Tractor Supply or order from KVVETS.com. I will try to post a picture of the can if I still have one, because it is a very generic looking thing.
The tale wrap just prevents the horse from itching, but have you ever been in a position where you had an itch and couldn't scratch it? Pretty miserable. This should take care of the source and the itch. Another note, if this does clear it up, then your stalls will need to be thoroughly cleaned and sprayed with a 2% bleach solution, or the cycle will just keep repeating and the parasites will just keep getting more and more resistant.
Hope this helps. Might sound "out there", but the proof is n the pudding. All that I have treated are not itching today.
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Member:
dres
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 1:53 am:
"Bovine and Equine Pinworm treatment" is this not harmful if a horse does not have pin worms? My three year old scatches his tail and is loosing it as well.. I am thinking of treating as you say.. but if he does not have pin worms this is not going to create another problem is it.. ?
On the first day God created horses, on the second day he painted them with spots..
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 8:22 am:
Shannon the reason nothing has worked is because you have failed keeping your horse exposed to Culicoides. You should redouble your efforts at preventing exposure and preventing the allergic reaction. I know it is not easy but if your horse suffers from Sweet Itch, it is the only way to relieve the discomfort your horse feels.
DrO
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Member:
stek
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 12:34 pm:
I agree Dr. O but short of moving her to another farm for the summer, control this year is going to be impossible. There are wetlands on the neighboring property which serve as a perfect breeding ground, and we don't have a barn up yet so she is going to have to live outside. On our old property she was kept up at night and that helped a lot. But it's just not an option this year.
I have yet to find a bug repellent that works and have tried everything I can get my hands on, including homemade remedies. A combo of citronella, clove and pennyroyal seemed to help more than others but I am pregnant so having that around is out of the question.
Thanks for the tip Jesse. I agree a tail wrap is just masking the problem, but I was thinking it would be more like scratching an itch through a sweatshirt vs. on open skin .. might prevent her getting open sores which adds another problem to the mix.
Also if this is a reaction to gnat bites, I wonder if she itches her tail because that's where they are biting her, and maybe wrapping the tail at night would prevent the bites?? She might also be itching her tail because she's getting bites on her udder area but the udder shows no sign of bites or inflammation. If anyone knows the answer to that riddle (where these little suckers like to bite) I'd love to hear it.
Dr. O could you address whether the pinworm stuff is safe if there is no infestation? I would like to rule out everything possible.
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 12:55 pm:
Shannon, Swat works really well, I use it through the gnat season.
In ears (just on the outside hair)
Along belly line (including sheath/udder)
On the tail head...IT WORKS!!!
Since you are PG and would maybe not use swat, (But with gloves on I would think it would be ok)
Dr.O. has suggested vaseline and I can definitley see how that would work, the little suckers would stick right to it and die!
At the height of the season I usually "swat" mine every other night. Doesn't take long for the itches to go away
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Member:
stek
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 1:14 pm:
Thanks Diane, I was just cross-posting on another thread Swat does seem to help keep the critters at bay, though it seems if my mare gets 'just one bite' all bets are off. I did try vaseline last year on a different horse who doesn't show the same reaction but gets crusty sheath from bug bites to see if it would work since it's way cheaper.
The horse that got the swat would stop stomping at critters when the swat was applied, and the neighboring horse who got vaseline kept stomping and continued to show evidence of bites. I can't say for sure what was biting him, but something still was. Moral of the story, at least for me, was that the swat is worth the extra $!
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Member:
shirl
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 2:08 pm:
Shannon, you might also try plain old Zinc Oxide. My Vet recommended it for midline bites, tail dock, etc.
I have also used a mixture of vinegar, water, skin so soft and a bit of lavender oil.
Good luck.
Shirl
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Member:
mitch316
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 3:53 pm:
Shannon, the treatment would be safe. Pinworms are tricky creatures, and every vet or horse caretaker has a story about how the little suckers "tricked" them. The only danger is not clearing out the infestation, and then they would become resistant to this treatment as well.
As for the gnats, Vaseline does work well. Ovitrol works well too, and it controls all insects, including mosquitoes. Another one is tea tree oil (melaleuca oil), which also works for a variety of skin irritations. With wetlands nearby, the problem could be any of a dozen pest's. The pinworm spray would also kill most other organisms as well, but I have had no problems other than the horse having a blue butt and inner thighs...they do not seem to mind. Baby Oil works well on the sores/dry cracked skin around the bites as well. Zinc oxide and hyDrOcortizone would also help with the itching.
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 5:40 pm:
Jesse I have a hard time wrapping my brain around a pinworm spray. Since most pinworms come from the inside.
I wonder if you are talking about screw worm spray??
https://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/product.asp?CID=2&pf_id=11807
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Member:
mitch316
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 6:17 pm:
Diane, that is not the spray, but it is similar.
The life cycle of a pinworm is from grass to intestine to poop to grass. Pinworms crawl outside the anus and lay their eggs around the anus, base of the tail, and inner thighs, and usually lay in masses that look yellow upon close inspection. It is hard to "catch" this cycle. When the larvae hatch, they crawl back into the anal orfice and reattach themselves to the intestinal wall. The itching is caused by the crawling and the saliva that is used to attach the eggs. Here is a picture of the horse that I learned my lesson on:
Dr/ O has a really good article here on pinworms. Hair loss at the base of the tail, rubbing or itching their rearends against anything they can get to, yellow eggs (looks like bot eggs, but smaller) are all tell tell signs. But like I said, and Dr. O can confirm this. They are easy to miss and are often misdiagnosed.
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 6:53 pm:
Thanks Jesse, yes I know the pinworm cycle, and I suppose there are resistant ones??? But shouldn't a good de-worming program prevent this. I guess what I don't get, is if you spray and kill the external ones...there's still the internals left to "irritate"?
It would seem most horses go through this itchy tail thing this time of year, I guess figuring the cause is part of the cure
Biting gnats are what cause mine to start itching, once I get them under control it all but goes away. Dirty sheath's and udder can be problematic too.
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Member:
mitch316
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Posted on Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 7:57 pm:
Diane, while it is true that good worming programs should prevent pinworms, to be honest, most folks do not follow one. They use the same wormer every 3 months (usually whichever is cheaper at the farm store) and do not worm at all during the winter. I follow a plan very similar to the one Dr. O suggests in his article here, and have to admit that it is sometimes hard to find the ones you need locally. I use kvvets.com, but some are not willing to go through that much trouble. That is also why I said in the first post to start with a wormer specifically made for pinworms. I usually use Ivervectin Gold, because around here in rural Kentucky, it is seldom used because of the cost.
Most people around here use the cheapest pyrantel pamoate paste they can find, and therefore most parasites around here do not respond to plain pyrantel (they do however respond to some of the compounded wormers that include pyrantel). As an example, when checking fecal samples for parasite loads before and after pyrantel in a horse where the wormers are not rotated according to the season, the load only reduces by a fraction. A horse following a schedule will have loads well within the acceptable range. I have had a few "poor" horses that were on what the owners described as an aggressive wormer program, yet would not gain weight show miraculous improvements in as little as two weeks after using a wormer not common to our area.
I guess I should do a little sleuthing and find the original post on here, so we can get Dr. O's take on this from then.
For the gnats and deer flies, we use Ovitrol and have really good results. It also kills bots, mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas and can last as long as two weeks if horse is kept dry. We have even started using it on the dogs before trail rides with good results. It can be used on any animal or reptile except rabbits (not sire why) and is easily found in most farm stores and at Tractor Supply. I have not tried their other products, but this one is called "Equine Insect Spray" and I get it from our farm store.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, May 3, 2009 - 7:30 am:
There is a lot intertwined stuff above and let’s try to untangle it. Shannon I can sympathize with your predicament, a horse allergic to a common biting midge of your area. The article on culicoides hyperesensitivity describes techniques to attack the problem at the other end to help prevent exposure. You may be doing all you can but I not found the aggressive case that cannot be managed if you willing to religously follow all the recommendations. After that it is steroids I am afraid.
Concerning confusing pinworms with culicoides hypersensitivity when horses are scratching their tails, the articles on each of these diseases provides information that should allow differentiation without much problem. In our area culicoides is a more common problem that pinworms but if the resistance problem described in our article is becoming more common this may change for some places.
Jesse your pinworm life cycle is incorrect. The larvae do not infect the horse through the anal route. Instead the eggs gradually DrOp off and the horse becomes infected through the oral route. See the article of pinworms for a detailed account. Spraying the anus may prevent females from emerging and laying eggs would not have an effect on the males or the larvae of either sex, so they will keep developing for months and months only to reestablish infection once you quit spraying. If you have pinworms for a problem we suggest you follow the recommendations in our article for their control.
DrO
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Member:
stek
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Posted on Sunday, May 3, 2009 - 8:34 pm:
I will re-read the article again and see if there is anything in there we might be able to do differently. We tried steroids last year at the advice of our vet who knows the mare's history, starting them in April to try to keep her from getting symptomatic. Plus the fly sheet, swat every other day on her tail, belly, mane and head, and regular fly spray. All to no avail...
The poor girl tries to come find me to put her in the barn when the gnats come out in the evening, but there is no barn in which to go.. maybe she will live in the garage this summer!
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Member:
paul303
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Posted on Monday, May 4, 2009 - 10:16 pm:
If it's on her mane, tail and ventral midline, and you really think it's culicoides, SWAT, SWAT, SWAT. Cases of it. Slather it on all affected areas...THICK. As often as necessary.
When I needed it for one of my mares ( who was REALLY ultra sensitive to culicoides ), SWAT only came in a rather violent pink color ( now, there is a clear ). She walked around all season gobbed in bright pink - ears, mane, belly, and tail....looked stupid as all get out, but it kept her comfortable.
I didn't have a lot of luck with flysheets, even with belly wraps....the darn gnats just squeezed underneath and bit the daylights out of her. She used to drag herself across the arena on her belly ( using her front feet ). Her belly, tail and mane were raw meat. We tried everything the vet had in his bag of tricks. Nothing worked like 1/4" of Swat.
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