Advice on Boett Rug

[Anna**]

I have just acquired a new horse and so far he has a lovely laid back temprement unfortunately he has so obviously suffered from sweet itch this year. The previous owner has admiteddly not tried to alleviate his itching in any way and his mane has now just started to grow back after rubbing that and half his neck on a cable!! I have looked up all about sweet itch and understand management is the key and i believe people swear by these boett rugs, do they really help to elliviate the problem? At present he is still swishing his tail and having a scratch so they are still bothering him, bless him! I think he suffers with it very badly but I firmly believe that is no reason to discriminate him and surely we can still have lots of fun together. I have also seen that they do a boet raincoat but would this be too warm in the summer. Am i best to get him a winter turnout now and a boett rug ready for the spring? All the help and suggestions you can give will be greatly appreciated as i want to do the best for him

[varkie]

Boetts are great rugs - I've used them for years on our pony, and they've made a big difference to her life. But there are a few things to be aware with them. They are reasonably robust, but ponies will rub on things if they are sweet itchy, and then rugs rip. So, you do need to make sure that they have nothing to rub on - electric things off if need be. Also, the rugs work best if they go on the pony at the start of the year, not once the allergy has kicked in - if they go on once the allergy is established, the pony is already extremely itchy and it will be some time before the pony feels the true benefit.

[Anna**]

Thank you for your help, i will invest in one before the midges get about next year and hope that i can at least make him have a more comfortable time than this year :(

[Kanuma]

yep i use one, before i got one stan rubbed himself raw by april unless he was stabled 24/7. now i have one he is out 24/7 and can do a full show season, well worth the money!!!! i cant praise them enough!! i put min e on in about feb and it doesnt come off until november

[Anna**]

Great :) this definitely sounds the way forward and he is still bothered by the damn midges now so Feb to Nov is what i will do, get it on before they're about. Another question tho will he be ok to ride in the summer months, when you take the rug off to ride what products do you put on to keep the midges away? Sorry about this but i just want to be as prepared as possible as some people think i shouldn't have got him coz he has sweet itch :( but im doing lots of research to help both him and me :)

[Kanuma]

unless im at a show then i dont take it off!! he gets ridden with it on because his is so bad. however at shows i use a midgeaway cream from flyaway product and lots and lots of flyspray and the rug gets put back on as soon as the class is over!

[varkie]

Ours has hers off to be ridden, and sometimes I bring her into the stable for an hour or two to have a break without it on. Then, I just use a powerful fly spray - at the moment I'm trying something called Phaser - seems ok.

[Clairabel]

Anna I would consider a snoogy hood sweet itch rug. Yogi has suffered for many years and when I took over his care last year I brought a Boett, it was fantastic as he is out 24/7. I had to take it off quite a bit to groom him (he is retired) and he always looked like a dirty, dandruff, grease bag underneath. He also got sores around his nose and under his eyes. I changed to the snoogy hood this year as he managed to tear his Boett into strips (I had repaired it about 10 times with my sewing machine). Yogi is still in his snoogy hood and he is so yummy underneath. He is like a big fluffy bear and I have to put my hand under and rub him every day it feels so gooooodddddd :D

[Anna**]

I like the idea of letting him have an hour or twos break from it in his stable and I suppose its trial and error on flysprays etc, they're seems to be so many products out there for sweet itch! I will look into the Snoogy hood sweet itch rug too Clairabel as it sounds more robust, where did you get yours from? Ive also found out they are making alterations to the Boett rug which will be out in January (prob more expensive :( ) Im very grateful for everyones help, its such a shame they didnt try to help him this year and its made me feel alot happier to know that next year I can make him more comfortable and it wont effect all the things we want to do too much :) Thank you!!!

[Sooty]

Clairabel - do you have a web site address for the snoogy hood? I did a search and wouldn't like to say what sort of sites came up in the results :eek:

horsemadmandy and me (where I can help) have taken over the care of an Exmoor pony with terrible sweetitch and open, weeping sores on his head and down his neck. I had no idea it could carry on this late in the year. Poor darling is going mad with discomfort - so any ideas on how we can provide some quick relief would be greatly appreciated :)

[Kanuma]

sooty for quick short term results, stable the pony 24/7 and rub aloe vera gel into the raw bits, when the raw bits are healed put him out again (normaly about a week)

[Sooty]

Thanks Kanuma - unfortunately we don't have access to a stable but will definitely get some Aloe Vera gel asap. Currently using Sudocrem but AV may be better