[Freddiesfarm]

I know I am a little bit premature but I know the time will come sooner than expected.

My dalesx suffers from sweetitch and I want any advice or ideas for treatment/prevention so that I can get on top of it before he goes bald and grumpy!

I use itchstop when he gets itchy and sore and that certainly helps, but Coopers, Naff, Bug Away etc none seem to stop the flies bothering him.  He wears a fly rug when the time comes and I have to put electric around anything he could possibly scratch on.  I sometimes find him on his back in absolute ecstacy over a molehill which he can use to itch on!

He doesn't get it really badly but his personality changes completely and he is almost too dangerous to ride and will rear if he gets too worked up about the flies.

I read somewhere about people using clic on horses - any ideas?

[shetlandpaul]

i use coopers and it seems to work. i use it as an anti midge spray on myself as well. love to see the little devils flying in for a bite and dying in their thousands. as i come out in huge hives if they bite i highly recommend the stuff.

[Hardfeather]

The secret is in getting a good sweet-itch rug on the horse before the first midge bites occur. We have a mild sufferer who, if left unrugged, will take out his mane and tail soon after the first bites of the year. We avoid that happening by getting him rugged, in a Rambo SI hoody, as soon as the weather looks midge-friendly. He wears that all summer and doesn't scratch.

Avon 'Skin-so-Soft' is good for keeping biting insects at bay.

[shetlandpaul]

ive heard it is. but i want to see the beggers die.

[loosey]

You can get ride on fly rugs now too which might make him more comfortable? A friend of mine sels them in her shop and I think they're only about £40.

Our pony has a handful of hi fi good doer in the summer with garlic in it and a teaspoon of marmite melted in hot water poured in. He wears his fly rug from now until they start coming in over night. I try and take it off just after dark and put it back on at 6am a few nights a week to give him some tome without it!

I put pig oil and sulphur all up his legs and on the top of his mane and tail and that all seems to manage it quite nicely ... god it sounds a lot when you write it down ... little sod doesn't appreciate it either!!

[Rosemary]

I gave Smokey brewers yeast in his feed last year and used Nettex Stop Itch. He did seem better than the year before. He does have a rug but I feel sorry for him all rugged up in summer, so decided to try this method instead. Bit of rubbing but nothing too drastic.

[Eeyore]

I have 2 cobs, one of which is prone to sweetitch.  For the last 9 years I have been using Neem Oil.  You can buy it from most health shops and I have bought some on ebay too - very good on the pocket too.  You keep it in the fridge or a cool place as it keeps it hard and is waxy to touch.  Once it heats up, e.g. you put it on to your fingers it starts to melt into a liquid.  I put it on my mare's mane and the top of her tail.  I cannot recommend this product enough.  It repels flies, neutralises the itch and therefore helps healing if sweetitch has established.  I often rub it round areas where the flies like to attack and it works.  Because it is an oil you don't have to reapply throughout the day.  Once a day or every second day works for me.

[Windwillow]

Try Switch - but use per instructions

[lachlanandmarcus]

For flies the royal vet college recommended Deosect to me (which is licensed for livestock but not specifically for horses cos there isnt the ££ to go thro the testing). It is about £30 a tin but that lasted us several years! Works out MUCh cheaper than fly spray. You dilute it massively and wipe all over the fly prone areas. Use gloves as its quite chemically but the horses dont mind it at all. It lasts between 2-5 weeks with one appplication so saves lots of time too. Most fly sprays I found actually seemed to attract flies!

For the underlying sweet itch the Boett Blanket rugs are far and away the best and need to be used before there is any chance of flies right through until no flies are present.

[lazybee]

We always use benzyl benzoate you can get it 1ltr bottles from Boots. You need to ask the pharmacist. I just rub a little in the base of the tail and in the mane. I use the plastic gloves the petrol station give away I don't like getting in on my hands every day. It stops the itching and the hair grows quickly.

[ellied]

I put a rug on before the rubbing starts and generally that is enough other than the face (she rubs the whorl area and under the forelock tho the forelock stays in).  I don't like hoods in case an eye gets covered when I'm away from the house.

The mare I have with SI type rubbing history appears allergic to forestry blackflies the tiny ones as she didn't rub up at Aberfeldy last summer being backed even tho they have plenty midges and clegs

If she does rub here now I've lost the forestry field then I will use any kind of barrier to cover a rub so it doesn't get worse - oil or grease types are most effective, and Avon SkinSoSoft to repel insects (her and me both!).  I am also trying Brewers Yeast this year as a supplement - B vitamins similar to what works with marmite.

And all the ponies are dosed with Spot On for general fly annoyance etc anyway..

I tried all the usual creams, lotions, potions and the SI injections from vets under the research trial a few years back that the boett folk did - nothing made any significant difference but if it wasn't midges she was allergic to then that might explain it  

[Freddiesfarm]

Had the boy rugged up and covered in kill itch with brewers yeast in his food and surrounded by electric fencing, but had to bring him in after a bout of colic (see thread about chicken food and horses) and overnight he rubbed through his new rug and now has a bald tail  - bleep bleep bleep!!!!

[white-blazes]

For about 10 years I've used a combination of Benzyl Benzoate and Avon Skin-So-Soft.  I rub the BB on the mane and tail and massage it right down to the skin.  The SSS I put in spray bottles and spray on loosely again on the mane and tail, as a fly repellent.  It does the trick, and she doesn't always need a fly rug on in summer either.

[jinglejoys]

Another vote for skin so soft 

[bazzais]

I am not sure about a remedy as I dont deal with horses but I do remember all the marmite going out to the shed when the misses had one in with sweetitch?  Damn shame too, I love my marmite...

Baz