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OMG the ITCHIES!

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my horses are SO ITCHY! the bugs have all come out and it doesn't seem to matter what kind of spray i use, the ponies are getting eaten. does anyone know of something that will help soothe the itchies? i feel so bad for them!

Morgan Thu, 05/28/2009 - 20:17

I've been using this stuff since I got my first horse in FL, I really like it: http://www.calmcoat.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It lasts forever too, I bought the big bottle about 8 years ago and I'm finally nearing the bottom. :lol: I see they are selling it in a spray bottle now :S I've allways just dabbed it on with my fingers.

I'm not having much flys this year but mosquitos and TICKS :shock: I pulled what felt like 40 off one of my dogs this morning and I know he was clean yesterday. :sad tick collars are in the mail and equi-spot for the horses.

Heidi Thu, 05/28/2009 - 21:38

My young Paso mare would get "sweet itch" something AWFUL every summer. It is also called "culicoides sensitivity". She would rub her mane out, rub hair off, rub sores into her face, neck, mane, chest, shoulders, belly and rub her butt muscles/tail trying to scratch her itches.
NOTHING worked! I tried every fly-spray, BOSS, flaxseed and even an antihistimine from the vet. NO results at all.

UNTIL...

I accidentally gave her an entire tube of ivermectin.
The dial-guard broke or slipped and she got the whole thing. Absolutely NO sweet itch that year.

Here's why:
Sweet itch, or culicoides sensitivity, isn't really a sensitivity to the culicoide bugs (tiny midges) or even to their bite (the way a mosquito bite would itch) it is a reaction to WORMS/LARVAE migrating through their skin/muscles to the crest of their neck! These larvae/worms can reach a foot long. Imagine [i]that[/i] wiggling in you! After the large dose of ivermectin, the worms die and the horse will have some discomfort while the dead worms are absorbed/removed by the body, but then they *heal* and have no more of those damning itchy symptoms.

Here are forum discussions about [u]Neck Thread Worms[/u] or [u]onchocerca cervicalis[/u] or [u]microfilariae[/u]:
Here is a discussion Jenks and I engaged in at HorseCity in regards to NTW:
http://forums.horsecity.com/lofiversion…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Here is a reply I made with info and links about NTWs:
http://gaitedhorsesense.com/forums/thre…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/sh…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://forum.horsetopia.com/health-nutr…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://forums.horsecity.com/index.php?s…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

all that sass Fri, 05/29/2009 - 19:57

one of them has gotten quite carried away with the scratching! but she got a whole tube of Eqvalan gold less almost 2 weeks ago. Vet is out on monday to start the fix - up on a new horse. will have her check it out. the rest of them seem to be doing not too bad now that the black flies have settled for a bit.

Heather Sat, 05/30/2009 - 16:51

We found in our guys the culicoide issues are a symptome of the deeper issue ,ie immune,allergy list problems ..similar to a demodex issues in a dog, the demodex mite is a normal skin mite but it the dogs lack of immune that makes him more sensitive to the mite and allows for the over population and irritation, our cilicode horse we ran a full alergy test on him and found that he was allergic to alot of stuff in his enviroment and set him up for the sensitivty for things like that and itch like a SOB... once we got him on foods that didnt have things that he was sensitive to and off grass he was sensitive and away from orange trees he improves 90% without treatment, but is give some meds to help it along .