Dear Steph,
Good for you, for working so hard to relieve the miserable itching of this
poor horse. And shame on the vets who say there is nothing to do (and the
owners who believe them)! Many useful articles are on
<www.maineicelandics.org/>.
Yes, there are LOTS of very SE-allergic horses, and as you see, there are
lots of treatments that help -- although none is a magic bullet. Hitting on
the most effective and convenient combination for your situation takes time and
effort, but can be very successful.
You don't say about your fan arrangement, but they seem much more effective
if mounted tummy-height and blowing horizontally, rather than blowing from
above. My SE guy leaves his buddies in the field and walks to the barn to
stand in the breeze for a couple of hours every late afternoon.
I am pleased that FlyGone7000 and SDS treatments helped for her; they
certainly make the difference between my guy being comfortable versus him being
driven nuts with itching and creating terrible lesions.
But gosh, I have never heard of anyone getting headaches from the spray.
Maybe try pure citronella? My testing indicated citronella is the ingredient
in FlyGone that repels the culicoides; however, FlyGone also contains
stabilizers which make the citronella last longer, so we found that pure
citronella required more frequent re-application. Many products that claim to
help with SE suffering seem to do little, when tested.
It is interesting that Benadryl helps relieve itching of this horse; was it
oral or topical treatment? Topical Benadryl had minimal effect on my SE-guy.
Indeed, are you sure it was the Benadryl and not the SDS that was relieving the
itching?
And, for a horse who is miserable from SE itching despite ones best efforts,
steroids can be warranted.
Best of luck for the horse (and you) this SE season; please do keep me
informed how it goes.
yours, Barbara
