ways to treat sweet itch in horses

Any horse owner that’s acquainted with sweet itch will be well aware of how irritating and uncomfortable this disease can be for our equine friends. It often requires much patience, dedication, and perseverance to get the condition adequately controlled and the horse happy. 

What exactly is sweet itch?

Many people are aware of sweet itch but confuse it with simple annoyance from biting flies, when really it is very much something more. Sweet itch is where an individual horse has an abnormally intense reaction, otherwise known as a hypersensitive (or allergic) reaction, to the bite of the Culicoides midge. Compared to the usual nuisance that is caused by flies biting, buzzing, and tickling, which is experienced by all horses. In those that have sweet itch, the midge bites cause intense itching (known as pruritus) and much discomfort. This means that just one or a small number of bites cause a far more marked reaction than would be expected in an unaffected horse. The condition tends to be seen in summer and spring when the insects are more active. 

Why is sweet itch a problem?

In horses that have sweet itch, the bites are very itchy. And it leads to the horse causing damage through excessive rubbing and biting at itself; in an attempt to provide some relief. In many cases, the worst affected areas are the mane, the withers and the base of the tail. The constant scratching often leads to grazed skin, sores, hair loss. And eventually chronic changes like the skin becoming thicker, flaky or even leading to skin infections on top. In severely affected horses, not only can they cause harm to themselves through such vigorous scratching. But they may be so afflicted as to not eat or rest properly and may understandably become grumpy. 

How do I know if my horse has sweet itch?

Often sweet itch is suspected just by looking at a horse whose owner reports that they are tremendously itchy. The mane and tail will generally show the tell-tale broken hairs, patchy hair