Sweet Itch Question

My mare gets sweet itch every year around this time, and usually its not severe enough to do much more than wash it with head and shoulders. The hair on the base of her tail thins slightly, but not much more. This year, however, it's really bad. I've been washing it, but its not getting better. I bought some itch relief shampoo for dogs, hoping it will work. Anyone know any good ways to heal it? I wanna try hot spot spray (I work at petsmart, so I have access to this stuff lol) or oatmeal shampoo if the medicated shampoo doesn't work. The only tack store around is pretty far away, and I'm not even sure they have stuff for sweet itch, so I'm trying to find other alternatives.

Washing it makes it worse by stripping the oils.

You can give her some relief by adding flaxseed to her diet. 4oz ground minimum, 8 is better. OTC Benadry can get mild cases under control.

I have a horse that would rub herself raw every summer. She reacts badly to flies. Allergy shots didn't work.
She is maintained comfortably on Atarax/hydroxyzine. She still has some hair loss & itching but not nearly as bad as it was.
Hydrocortisone cream is helpful too & cheap from dollar stores.

What about calamine lotion? I know it's supposed to relieve itching for poison ivy and bug bites and such..

*I also have a bottle of CVS brand "Calahist" it relieves itching from poison ivy and all that stuff in addition to "skin irritations"

Try it. If it's a mild reaction it might help. I've bought the Costco multi packs of Hyrocortizone cream as well (cheap$$). When you're slathering on 1/2 tube at a time it helps. Fly sheets made it worse and she would destroy it in 2 days.

We have a colt who would rub himself raw. When he is raw we use diaper rash cream. Once it the sore closes up we use MTG.

When my mom had my gelding she used skin so soft that was like a bug repellent (they say it was) it helped, and his mane and tail grew back nice.

Get some pure Neem Oil mix 1 teaspoon Neem Oil with 1 teaspoon of shampoo and add 2 pinys hot water and wash that over your horse, you can spray it on but if it gets cold it will bung the nozzle as Neem solidifies.

This will not only relieve the itching but will also keep the flies and gnats away.
Sweet itch is an allergy to the saliva of gnats.

I have a 30+ year old Morgan/Qtr. Each year he got older his sweet itch got worse. At first just keeping him fly sprayed helped by it got bad. He actually rubbed so hard he broke down an entire fence line and flayed the skin right off! I finally tried an Animed product called HistAll. 1 scoop in his feed twice a day and he hasn't had a problem since. It's under $20 a month and I only use it mid spring to early fall. We live right next to a river in Central Arizona so we have every bug and allergy known to man, but he's doing fine.