nasty sweet itch rub

[notpoodle]

this year is definitely worse for sweet itch than last!! although angel wears her rug and a full mask with ears 24/7 she still manages to rub herself :(

the latest of these rubs is pretty nasty. she managed to get the mask off somehow and now has a bit between her eyes (where the wirl is) rubbed raw. its about the size of a 50p coin (quite big!), and pink with blood trickling out :(

i cleaned it as well as i could with woundspray on some cotton (didnt want to risk spraying right by her eyes!) and slapped loads of sudocreme on.

it looked a bit better yesterday but still pretty yuckie :( im also in a dilemma as to whether to stick the mask back on or not. if i put it on (which i have ...) she might rub the mask into it which wouldnt be good, but if i leave it off, flies will be sitting in/on it which is probably even worse ...

what to do?

julia
x

[janette carter]

JUlia if she is going out in the field I think you are going to have to put the mask back on otherwise she is just going to get bitten even more. What rug and mask do you use?

Buffy really suffered last night as well must be some weather change. Got bitten really badly inside her back legs and even under her tail on her vulva - bet that caused a buck and a squeal!!! Poor animals it is such a lousy complaint for them to endure all summer.

[notpoodle]

she has the mask on again, of course. i couldnt bring myself to not put it on. she has the rambo sweet itch hoody (cant afford a boett) and a borrowed (she trashed all hers already ...) full face and ears mask by, erm , ROma or something. its made entirely of pretty tough mesh stuff. she wears a fieldsafe headcollar on top of it so she cant get the mask off that easily.

julia

x

[Big Ears]

maybe you could use one of the stable hoods on her under the mesh as some of those meshes might still let in midges as they are more fly meshes but not for midges.

poor girl, our donkey has a boett on but she doesn't seem to get bitten on the face at all.

[tb_rider]

I have 2 mares with sweet itch. what a hassel! :rolleyes:
I put Camphoe-Phenique mixed in Vasseline, on the infected areas and it really helps, there's a certian way to do it i think, my mom mix's it up for me, i can find it out for you if you'd like?!

[ilostmymarbles]

I know this is going to sound really weird but try feeding your horse marmite. I kid you not it really works. Something to do with the yeast. My sisters(kanuma, is her new rider name) pony stan has really bad sweetitch and it seems to do some good. The other thing is make sure you have his belly and the inside of his back legs coverd cause thats where the midge bits, not necesarily where he is itching, which is why many extreme cases of sweetitch rub their belly and legs raw as well as their head/tail/mane etc. I would also try a midge reppelent like tb_rider suggests. rub it on his inner legs belly and whereever he is itching.