Some thoughts on the itchies.

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Lizzie

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I see several posts about horses scratching themselves raw. Ruling out mies/flies/allergies etc., I thought I add some (maybe) helpful ideas.

Many years ago, I owned a dog grooming parlour. I groomed many show dogs, since I also showed dogs myself all my life. Show dogs cannot afford to have skin issues and loss of hair, but I had many who came to me with severe skin and coat issues. I happened to see an article in Dog World at the time. It suggested that plain old Murphy's Oil Soap would do the trick. Having tried all kinds of products on these dogs, I tried MOS. You can find it in any grocery store in the household cleaning area. I used it much as I would shampoo. It's pretty thick, so you might have to add a little water to use. I left it on the animal for about 5 mins and then rinsed. It does leave the coat just slightly tacky, but after a few shampoos, these dogs had no sign of their previous, sometimes dreadful skin conditions, and grew wonderful healthy coats. Maybe it's worth a try on horses? I have not tried it on horses, but it might just work. I use it to clean almost everything in my home. It's safe and leaves everything smelling nice too.

Next thought.

A few years ago, a friend of mine in the UK, had a Gypsy Horse mare with a grave skin condition. It was not mites, which Gypsies often tend to get under their feather. This was on her chest and under her barrel. She had rubbed and bitten herself raw. She was pretty much a raw, bloody mess. She and her vet had tried everything and my friend was seriously considering putting her down, since the mare was in such distress. She happened to meet an old farmer who almost laughed at her considering such a thing. He told her to buy a whole lot of plain, natural yoghurt. No fruit, colouring etc. He told her to just slap it on the mare and to watch what happened. She did as he suggested, really as a last resort. Well it worked and in a few weeks, the mare had no sore patches and hair had grown back almost perfectly. She still has the mare and no problems since.

I obviously cannot guarantee either of these suggestions, but they are worth a try since I have seen both work.

Lizzie
 
Last summer my mare rubbed spots bald all over her body especially around her mane. It was suggested to use medicated talc powder like you would use for jock itch. So I bought the generic talc from Walmart and would groom her really good, then sprinkle the talc all over her body especially where she was rubbing bald, she stopped rubbing and her hair started growing back. We haven't had that problem this summer, but I changed feed, don't know if that had anything to help.
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