sweet itch remedies? anyone?

keep the faith

keep the faith

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Apr 16, 2004
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:Dwe have at the moment a minature horse who has sweet itch, she is currently out in field and we have been putting a gel on her to repel the midges but she is still rubbing her self raw in places.

i have sourced a tiny fly rug for her but the only problem is that she has a month old foal so the owner won't put a rug on her. Has anyone got any ideas of what we can try?
 
Would it be possible for you to stable her so that she is in before dusk and turned out around 10ish in the morning?. The stronger fly repellents would probably help (Coopers). Also sudocreme really eases the raw patches, I slap it on quite thickly.

tbh I can only manage my boys sweet itch with proper rugs
 
they can wear eg boetts and still have the foal suckle. is the owner worried abnout the foal getting trapped in the rug?!

if you cant rug her, keep up with the fly repellant (and put it on daily, even if the pot says 'only needed every couple of days). better to use some kind of gel or gunk as sprays dont last long at all.

if you stable her ... stabling is pretty useless unless you can ensure no flies get into the stable. eg flies get into the stable, and are attracted by stables cos theres p*o and stuff in there. this idea that stabling a sweet itch pony helps them is a bit of a myth, because youre basically trapping the pony with the flies AND give it 3 doors and a wall to itch on :o

Julia
x
 
stabling is not necessarily useless !. We lost a very elderly pony last year that suffered with sweet itch but mildly compared to my cobs. As soon as it became dusk he would start to rub. When we put him in the stable he didnt and was comfortable until late morning.

Saying that his stable faced away from the stream, muck heap, fields etc and fronted a concrete yard. He was bedded on shavings and skipped out at least twice. Stabling definately worked for him :)
 
My pony is very itchy, he doesn't have sweetitch but I show him and as a native I wanted to try and stop him ruining his mane and tail. I heard that Marmite is good for itchy ponies and have to say it seems to have helped mine a lot. He just has a squirt in his tea and a sandwich for breakfast :D I was chatting to my vet this morning and he said it would be the 'B' vitamins in it which help. I have also in the last week put him back on Global Herbs SuperSkratch which is a strong smelling powder which is meant to make them less attractive to flies. He was on it last year and it was great, I didn't need to use a fly repellent at all. It seems to be working this year too.
 
Last year I had some success with adding marmite to my boys feed, although this year its not having the same effect(he has suffered quite badly with it this year), you try that see if it helps??
 
tinyted

yep! my friend swears by neem oil her mare suffered last year quite badly so she used the neem oil this year and as yet there are no signs....i use nettex summer freedom on my mare(called something else in the uk)and it was fantastic but her bald patches weren't huge!!!! but i live literally in the middle of a humid forest so you can imagine how bad the midges get and my two have been rugged up with normal flysheets and full face spacemans helmets "bless" so this year got extra protection....all ok so far:)
 
We use fly repellent gels/creams with at least 10% Deet (Di-ethyltolumide[sp]). Applied at least 3 times daily on head, crest, underside of neck, chest, between front legs, back legs, tail and flanks! We aslo feed the max dose of garlic.

Our horse has gotten worse as he's gotten older and we now give him the injection from the vet twice a year. I can't remember the name right at this moment in time, but it does have an immediate effect.
 
I really recommend Gold Label Itch-gon. It's horrible slimy sticky yellow stuff but it worked so well for my horse and banished all sweet-itch symptoms.
 
my vet recommends feeding brewers yeast powder (the same as marmite but cheaper) and putting olive oil on the sore skin. you can also use the oil in a spray bottle on the mane and tail to stop the flies biting. you need to shampoo the horse at least once a week to clear away the old oil but this technique is really working for my very scratchy mare and has saved me a fortune in potions
 
My horse wears a fly rug and mask during the day, and stabled at night with net curtains at the window at top of stable door that i bought from a charity shop. so at night i can take his rug off, he loves it in his fly/midge free stable. Also ive ordered a door mosquito net for his field shelter - so when this arrives im hoping he can stay out at night.:cool:
 
Flies

feed a teaspoon of marmite dissolved in water and mixed in with some feed.Feed x1 daily. This really helps keep the flies away.Also wash the sweet itch area with vinegar and rinse well.This also helps alot.:):):)
 
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