hives in horses?

Question

she has had it 2 years now and the vet has given her pills, jabs, and lotions and potions. has anyone any experience with this? my mare scratches herself till she bleeds. have looked on web sites but i want experience answers please and no bee jokes!

Answer 1

I have a quarter horse that one time rubbed all the hair off his right flank. I got some stuff called Fung A Way, now it says it is for rain rot, but he didn't have that we don't know what he had to this day but withing two treatments it was cleared up and his hair grew back. you can find it at Tractor Supply or in the vet catalogs.

Answer 2

You don't say where on the body, or whether it is constant or comes and goes.

I'll give you two suggestions.

The first is mange - an allergic reaction to naturally occurring mites. Ideally this should be confirmed by a skin scrape and then a 5-day course of ivermectin and treatment of the area with something such as frontline (but not on broken skin) usually clears it up. You would need veterinary advice on the dose of ivermectin and actually I don't think frontline is licensed for horses, although it seems to be the thing that vets recommend for this. As far as I know this usually occurs on the legs.

The second and probably more likely scenario is a reaction to something in the environment. One horse I know was covered in itchy sores on her head and back. The fact that she was sticky suggested that it was a conifer tree and sure enough that's where she was resting during sunny days and the sap from the tree was dripping onto her. If it is something like this then you are going to have to work hard to track down the source - where is she standing/lying etc. when the problem is worst, what time of year does it show up?

Look out for a number of irritating plants - some conifers as I have mentioned; buttercups which are highly allergenic for some horses and all plants which have particularly hairy or sticky leaves.

If you identify any potential sources of the irritation then isolate your horse from them and see whether the problem gets better. Also consider keeping her in on good quality bedding to see whether sleeping indoors helps the problem to go away or at least put on a light rug.

Answer 3

I had a friend that had a Clydesdale mix that was allergic to the sun. The horse would break out in hives and lose his hair. The vet tried everything, but in the end the only thing that worked was stabling the horse during the day and letting it to pasture at night.

I hope you find the source of the hives. Good Luck and Take Care

Answer 4

Think this moght be sweet itch, It difficult to control,
My mare has it every year and in Spring I keep her
neck covered. She seems to suffer most around her
withers , neck and mane. I have her mane totally cropped
wich helps... I also dilute calamine lotion and dab on
with sponge, it does not look pretty, but seems to help.
I have also had some success with cutting outs out
and feeding less heating feeds, plenty carrots and veg plus
I soak her hay before feeds. These are things I have
picked up over the years, and she does not scratch until
she bleeds any longer !! the problem is, her son !! he
has started, so I would suspect it the richness of propriarty
food and next winter, will mix my own !! good luck

Answer 5

In addition the excellent advice above by Kate B, look into a product called Calm Coat. It will help with the itchy feeling which will stop her from scratching until she bleeds.

Good luck and I hope you find the culprit of your mare's irritant, which is most assuredly on your property somewhere.

Answer 6

My 6 year old gelding was 2 years old when he developed welps on his body. After a year of trying to figure out what it was, we finally got in contact with a Equine facility back East (I'm West coast) through our vet who travels the national for newly advanced Equine technology and they are doing a field study on him.

We paid 1,000 for him to be tested on his allergies. It came back that he is allergic to things that horses are exposed to everyday: House flies, stable flies, wheat brand, ash, mullberry, spring molds, pullens etc.

We have him on an allergy shot from a vile that he is givin .5cc every 50 days, which I extended as it used to be 1cc every 30 days under the skin.

Since then, he barely will break out and hasn't had a break out in 2 years.

My step dad's quarter mare is same way, but he won't get her properly treated. (his ignorance). So, she constantly will break out as meds only work for a short time.

I recommend your vet getting in touch with a few vet schools and field of study on hives to do some blood work done.

Some horses are more sensetive on their skin more than others.

Try to narrow it done of his environment of being exposed and see when he most break out is at: spring, winter, fall, summer?

Try to limit exposure to insect bites and slowly switch his feed around alittle to determine if the grain, oats, corn, brand or other substances are causing a break out.

We had to do that and after the testing with giving the shots, we slowly introduced those items back into his diet. He can not have west nile or other shots with the vile at the same time as it will over load his system.

I recommend seeking other vets opinion's and getting in touch with Cal Poly and even getting in touch with Bakersfield Vet Hospital in Bakersfield, California. Ask for Dr. Tulley or Dr. Filkins.

Answer 7

maybe pretty minor after all the advice you've had but do you feed raw garlic? i've seen it do a alot for skin conditions (possible because it helps avoid more insect activity)
does the horse share pasture - is he possibly picking up lice or similar from other animal?

Answer 8

I didn't think that is possible. I'm sorry for your horse.