My Welsh Pony has problem

[marge]

I bought a skinny, black and white paint 8 yr old Welsh pony at our local auction for my five year old grandson. This was during the Winter. With TLC he's now fat and beautiful. He turned out to be have excellent gaits, good about almost everything, Then came Summer, and he started to scratch and scratch on everything and about rubbed down his stall door and had rubbed sores on his head.

Turns out he's allergic to flies! I didn't want my vet to give him predisone, I think it causes more problems than solves any, so he said to give him Benadryl capsules. He started him at five (5 ) 50 mg capusules three times a day and now have him down to five (5) capsules once a day and he seems to be OK.

I would like to know if anyone knows about giving him garlic and vinegar to help keep the flies away from him? I've heard it changes their blood. Is this bad for them? If not how much would I give a 14 hand, 750 lb pony? And what form of garlic?

Plus, I have another question. He's getting too fat. I think he was gelded late and has thick features, but he's looking too fat. I use one of my husband's small coffee cans to feed and I give him 1/2 of this AM and mix his Benadryl in and then give 1/4 can at night. His pasture is nice green festue. He's never been foundered and I don't want to make him sick, what amount should he be eating?
Should I stall him at night too? I 'd hate to do it but for his health I would. Marge

 

[Lgd]

Sounds like he has sweet itch. Fairly common in native breeds in the UK. There is a product available in the USA that is very good for this, called Bug Check. It is a feed additive, people are giving it the thumbs up on other boards that I visit. I think it is fairly inexpensive as well.

As far as weight is concerned he is probably getting too much good grass. Welsh ponies are bred to survive on fresh air and scrubby mountain grass with not a lot of goodness in it. Weight gain is a general problem with the breed when they hit lowland grass in the UK. Do you have an area with sparse grazing or the facility to restrict his grazing such as a grass muzzle or a sand paddock (exercise and no food). Only give him a handful of feed to get his meds down. Lots of exericise will also help, at 14hh these ponies can quite happily take an good sized adult without undue strain so if you are able you could ride him yourself. Another option is lunge exercise or round penning.

 

[Nic J]

I agree with Lgd that it sounds like sweet itch, are you sure that it is flies that he is allergic to and not midges? I have tried feeding garlic to my sweet itch sufferer but found that this made no difference at all. I use Benzyl Benzoate (from the chemist) mixed half and half with water and a Boett rug which does just about control it. I think the Boett rugs are manufactured in America.

Stabling at night with a small amount of hay (best fed in a small hole haynet to make it last longer) could be a good option for his weight. And if it is sweet itch that he is suffering from it should also help this by reducing his exposure to midges which are worst at dawn and dusk.

 

[Ali Hugs]

Our little Welsh pony also suffers from a fly/midgey allergy too and almost rubbed his tail bald/raw a couple of weeks ago and had some ugly bald patches along the base of his mane. I tried a Sweetitch cream which is FANTASTIC and I highly recommend it. Upon using it for the first time, the itchiness stopped immediately and hair has almost grown back along the base of his mane and is coming back on his tail too. It also acts as a repellent so there is no further irritation. It's called Aromaitch and is entirely natural and can be ordered over the internet - their website is called 'aromesse.com'. Good luck with your pony

 

[Nickie]

On the weight issue - LGD and others recently gave me some good advice which I followed on my shared 14.1hh welshie.

He has 3/4 of a scoop of chaff after excersise so he gets his supplements. and is turned out 24-7 in a field with enough grass to nibble on. (His owner refused to let me stop the hay) so he gets one section nightly instead of the 3-4 he was getting.

He is starting to lose weight nicely and he now gets 1-2 hours good work 6 times a week. We've just really got to work on getting his back legs engaged!

I don't know much about the medical side of things - but I would tend to agree with the others about the itching. There is a lass down my yard with a sweet itch suffering welshie too I'll ask her what she uses - just for a bit more input!

wish you all well

Nicola