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HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Skin Diseases, Wounds, and Swellings » Hair and Coat Problems / Itching / Irritated Skin » Overview of Pruritis: Scratching & Rubbing »
  Discussion on Recurrent itching
Author Message
Member:
wendyp

Posted on Tuesday, Dec 14, 2010 - 4:11 pm:

Hi I have an part bred irish draught cob in england. 2 years ago in the autumn he started to itch and it was settled down by steroids. He remained a bit itchy in the winter but was ok in the spring. The next autumn he was worse and we tried an elimination diet. Removal of molasses and washing his things without detergent seemed to help. However the itching continued and eventually we got it lessened after switching from haylage to hay. Which my vet says is not what he'd expect. I also found regular baths helped him.
However he has continued to itch but not to the point where he is removing the hair. This autumn there was no seasonal worsening in the autumn. Instead it has flared up in the last few days and he has taken several hand sized patches of hair off and rubbed until he has bled. Further steroids have been prescribed to try and calm him down but we are not getting to the cause.
The only reason we can find for this flare up is that the horses had been in for a fortnight due to snow, the temperature suddenly went from -10 to 8 degrees and that night he got too hot and sweaty. I bathed him but it hasn't stopped the itching.

He is kept on shavings, been at the same yard 5 years. He is fed good homegrown hay, dried grass, oats (although none for 2 weeks), carrots, apples and has various medication for a bone spavin - danilon, joint supplement, anti-acid preparation (because of danilon), and a good vitamin and mineral supplement. All chosen as no molasses, alfafa, barley etc.

Any ideas? My vet is off to a dermatology course tomorrow and hopes to get some help too. He is mystified too.
Member:
vickiann

Posted on Tuesday, Dec 14, 2010 - 7:38 pm:

Wish that I could give some truly constructive advice but can say that for those equine patients with allergies small things can be huge.

Make sure that the walls and other structures of your barn are clean.

With one of my dogs I have had a huge reaction (3 courses of antibiotics plus 2 of steroids) to something as simple as the change of of her food dish. Once that was changed back she was good to go.
Member:
zoey

Posted on Tuesday, Dec 14, 2010 - 9:26 pm:

We have had the same problem with more than one horse. We have tried "everything". tried using different things on different horses Does not matter whether it is winter, summer.... these horses are kept inside year round. I have one horse I took off of the property about 3 months ago. Most of the areas he had rubbed the hair off have came back, less a spot above his eye,, it had gotten bigger.
I have started using Tea Tree Oil, couple DrOps with small capful of olive oil,, or with neosporin,, I think I am starting to see some results, I have a lot of dead skin sloughing off and I think I see little hairs starting in places,,, I started this treatment ( experiment) about 5 days ago.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 - 8:26 am:

Hello Mrs Perry,
As for a cure you are going to have to find the source of the allergic reaction. There are some folks who do react to environmental heat with a generalized pruritus often with hives. Often these folks have mild allergies that the heat exacerbates. Also possible is that your horse has a mild form of autoimmune skin disease though the seasonality argues against this possibility.

As to symptomatic treatment we cover that in the article and you should be able to find help there.
DrO
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