subject: The Itchy Horse Season Has Returned! [print this page] Well its that time of year again that horse owners on the coast dread, the weather warms up and the horse begins to itch! Queensland itch or summer itch is beginning once more and it pays to get on top of it early.
The first skin reaction is due to an allergic reaction or hypersensitivity to the bites and insect saliva from tiny biting Culicoides brevitarsus, a common sand fly or midge, which lives in tropical and subtropical areas. The midges breed in humid, scrubby and bushy localities along the coastal fringe and inland in tropical areas with summer rainfall, or northern areas with monsoonal rains.
Secondary skin problems occur due to the constant itching that is caused by the allergic part of the condition. This results in trauma, hair loss, irritation and thickening of the skin particularly over the tail and mane.
A single midge could be surprisingly horrible and bite a horse up to one hundred times per hour.
Management of Queensland itch is best achieved by mixing pesticides and good quality horse rugs. A full body horse rug and neck combination is useful and in very sensitive, chronically affected horses, a covering over the ears and a fine fly mesh over the forehead is recommended. The Recovery horse rug is a horse rug impregnated with pesticides and has shown to provide incredibly good relief. Other full body horse rugs, such as the DeMeulenkamp rug is a great horse product, with a flap to cover the belly it's given wonderful results.
There are a several insecticidal and repellent lotions and creams containing permethrins.
Midges appear to be reasonably immune to DEET and citronella based repellents. Washing a sensitized horse in a permethrin based wash, like Swift, Permoxin or Brute, once every week can help control the biting and reduce the itch.
Other alternative therapies, such as Aloe Vera, Lavender, Sulphur paste, garlic, seaweed meal and rosehip seem to have unpredictable and typically restricted results.
If a good horse rug and insecticides dont control the itching, as a final resort highly allergic horses could be moved to drier or colder areas where there are no midges. Your vet could also offer immune suppressing drug, like cortisone to relieve itching. This must be a last resort as using cortisone does have some risks.
A probable future treatment is vaccination as a form of immunotherapy. Results at this time are variable, however analysis is continuing.
Horse supplements that improve skin health, like Kohnkes Own Energy Gold, Kohnkes Own Cell-, Cell-, Aussie Sport, Palomino Gold for Palominos (and Donkey Supreme for Donkeys), may facilitate in improving the skin condition when utilized in conjunction with insecticides and rugging.
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