Itchy tails.

Ah yes, the infamous 'itchy tail syndrome'

Both my mare and gelding have it. It's scabby and itches like hell!

I've tried MTG but I feel like its not doing much good because they're in the sun all day and I feel like it bakes to there skin and may irritate it more. I tried head&shoulder anti dandruff mixed with oatmeal baby shampoo. I hear lysterine and baby oil may work or even tea tree shampoo.

Any suggestions? My geldings sheath was just cleaned and my mares teets were as well. He's digging up fence posts from itching so hard!
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I can't help too much about what product to use, but I will tell you what NOT to use. Baby oil should never be put on a horse. It could burn them really bad in the sun.

Zinc Oxide and/or Listerine might be something to look into. I'm big on homemade recipes, and I've heard some good things about Listerine, as weird as it may seem.

I used listerine mixed with water and something else (not sure, was borrowed from a friend) to try and stop a fellow horse from using my geldings tail as a snack. It worked pretty well.
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This is where I make my pitch about how some clever person needs to invent an upper tail wrap that is suitable for turnout and won't cut the circulation off the tail.

I'm not kidding. There are tail wraps out there but I haven't found any that are safe for turnout, and will actually stay on without cutting off circulation

One of my horses has environmental allergies. I don't care what I've tried, I cannot keep the upper three inches of his tail from sunburning, then itching, then he rubs it, then the flakes start, on and on and on.

I pray this horse doesn't get cancer one of these days because it's all at the very top of his tail.

Right now the best I can do is shampoo it with prescription shampoo, let dry; spray with Vetericyn gel every day, let that dry and put Dermalog on it every couple days.

The only thing that's going to stop his tail from burning (therefore the itching) is when the sun rotates far enough in the sky to stop being a health hazard to him

WITW, have you thought about a cotton rug and tailbag? Seems to me if you protected the tail from the sun, it wouldn't sunburn as bad.

My mother got a horse a couple of years ago that had a big raw rub patch on his tail. Clipped his tail (just where the rub patch was), put antiseptic on it, then put medical honey on it. Kept it clipped really short, and did the medical honey every day until it healed. No more itching, no more rubbing, no more raw sore spot.

What is causing the itch? Get to the bottom of that first.

If the itching is localized to the tail, it could be a sign of them having worms. A quick vet check and fecal test might be worthwhile. The vet should be able to determine if it is possibly some kind of fungal or bacterial infection and advise you on the best course of treatment.

Until then, you are guessing at a solution and could be making the problem worse by applying different things that may irritate.

It's not worms that I do know. He's had the itchiness on and off for months I'll apply stuff to it and it'll go away But this time it's just scabby and itchy as heck for him. I'm almost positive that it's either sunburn (which is why I stopped the MTG) or those little summer buggies.
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No, this is all new to me and well worth trying

I've heard a lot about medical honey but I've also heard it isn't that successful unless the honey was grown in a person's area.

It just so happens we've had some honey bees move into a big hollow spot in an old tree behind the barn. I can't get a clear view of the hollow but, I am pretty sure there is honey covering the outside of that nest.

I just need to figure out how to harvest some of it without investing a "bee zoot suit". I've already been botoxed by ground bees, in all the wrong places, when I was mowing back there - lol

Just to clarify, worms are most definitely not my horse's issue either

That is rubbish about it having to be local. I just get the honey from the chemist - more expensive but guaranteed and scientifically tested. We use it for ALL first aid, that and the stick-on breathable stretchy dressing that we call fixomull in Aus. I never have any infection or scarring from injuries (mind you we haven't had any really major ones), and our vet has started to recommend it after seeing the results we get with it.

The good that the honey does is that it has antibacterial and antiseptic properties, and there's something in it that encourages healing and discourages excessive proud flesh. It also decreases itch (you need that property of it to get rid of an itchy raw patch) and hydrates the skin, making it more flexible and (if applied to an injury) means stitches are less likely to pop.

If you're going to use the rug and tailbag, you have to have a waterproof turnout coat on top, and preferably a waterproof tailbag as well, if it looks like rain. Otherwise wet rugs can cause other problems that are as bad if not worse. I don't have tail itch issues, and my horses' tails don't seem to sunbleach, so I don't bother with tailbags, but they aren't expensive. The pricey part is the cotton rug itself - good ones range anywhere from $50 to $300 here, tailbags usually anywhere from $10 upwards.