We get many questions posed through the newsletter and I thought it would be a good Idea to post some of these for club memebers to benefit from.
Question: Is there a good recomended RX for Sweet itch?
Sweet Itch: Also known as Queensland Itch, Summer Itch or more technically, Culicoides Hypersensitivity.
Sweet Itch is a medical condition in equines caused by an allergic response to the bites of Culicoides midges. It is most commonly found in cobs and native British horses and ponies, although it is not unseen in other equines. It is also found in Canada, Australia, the US and many other parts of the world
Tail of a badly infected Sweet Itch horse.
Answer: Laurie Russell writes in saying "an RX for sweet itch - MUCK ITCH!!! It works fantastic. I use it on my young horse who suffers from sweet itch on his tail and neck. You can get it at Cheshire horse, it is pretty much all natural stuff and it does work. Dillon was scratching the hair off his dock. I started him on it, and voila, he immediately stopped itching. I use it every other day and I am still on my first bottle that I bought over a month ago now"
The recipe below is a homemade recipe for combating Sweet Itch Irritation found on equisearch.com
Combine the following ingredients and apply the mixture to sweet itch sores twice daily.
- 8 oz. of Gold Bond Medicated Body Lotion (Extra Strength, in green bottle)
- 4 oz. Aveeno Anti-Itch Concentrated Lotion
- 4 oz. Benadryl Itch-Stopping Gel
- 4 oz. Avon Skin So Soft (increase up to 8 oz. if the gnats are bad).