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Hey guys,
I have had my mare for nine years. About seven years ago now, she developed a horrible case of the hives - swelling to the point that I couldn't get her halter on her, itchy, huge, just downright unpleasant. We called the vet out, he treated her, they went away and were never seen again. Fall of 2012, she developed a very different type of hive. These did not cause her entire body to swell, they just appeared literally overnight. Some were almost the size of my hand, others were very small. This time, she was not itchy and other than being quite unsightly, didn't phase her at all. Again, the vet came out, treated her with dexamethasone, and they went away. However, they came back. After coming out two or three times to treat her, our vet gave us prescription pills to give her. About November they disappeared as quickly as they appeared.
This past fall (2013) she developed this same type of hive and she still has them, and not because they are going untreated. The vet knows us well (we've been with him for well over twelve years) and once again gave us the same medication she had last year. We were also told about an herbal supplement - I cannot remember the name at the moment - by another vet at the same office. We knew one horse that had hives more or less from the day he was born and this herbal supplement cleared him right up, so we gave it a shot. While her hives are much smaller, she still has them.
Other than the hives, the vet says she is in fantastic condition, very healthy, sound as she's ever been, still quite content under saddle (he said as long as she's not uncomfortable to go ahead and ride and she behaves no differently than she did before) and so forth. Multiple vets said blood work would be expensive and essentially be useless - it would tell us, yes, she has an allergy, but it may or, more likely, may not tell us what was causing the allergies.
I'm not sure if this is noteworthy or not, but with absolutely zero changes in treatments, feed, bedding, etc. she will go from a fairly significant case of hives to just a few teeny, tiny hives in the case of a few days, and they will flare up again just as quickly. I have attached an image of her in just a couple days time - left image is first while the right image is a few days later.
I should also mention that in these time periods the bedding did not change, and to our knowledge (unless something changed at the plant), neither did her grain. There was a new hay supplier fall of 2012 for a brief period of time, but her hives well outlived the new hay (beyond 4 weeks).
Has anyone else had similar issues? Have you found something that worked for your horse?
I have had my mare for nine years. About seven years ago now, she developed a horrible case of the hives - swelling to the point that I couldn't get her halter on her, itchy, huge, just downright unpleasant. We called the vet out, he treated her, they went away and were never seen again. Fall of 2012, she developed a very different type of hive. These did not cause her entire body to swell, they just appeared literally overnight. Some were almost the size of my hand, others were very small. This time, she was not itchy and other than being quite unsightly, didn't phase her at all. Again, the vet came out, treated her with dexamethasone, and they went away. However, they came back. After coming out two or three times to treat her, our vet gave us prescription pills to give her. About November they disappeared as quickly as they appeared.
This past fall (2013) she developed this same type of hive and she still has them, and not because they are going untreated. The vet knows us well (we've been with him for well over twelve years) and once again gave us the same medication she had last year. We were also told about an herbal supplement - I cannot remember the name at the moment - by another vet at the same office. We knew one horse that had hives more or less from the day he was born and this herbal supplement cleared him right up, so we gave it a shot. While her hives are much smaller, she still has them.
Other than the hives, the vet says she is in fantastic condition, very healthy, sound as she's ever been, still quite content under saddle (he said as long as she's not uncomfortable to go ahead and ride and she behaves no differently than she did before) and so forth. Multiple vets said blood work would be expensive and essentially be useless - it would tell us, yes, she has an allergy, but it may or, more likely, may not tell us what was causing the allergies.
I'm not sure if this is noteworthy or not, but with absolutely zero changes in treatments, feed, bedding, etc. she will go from a fairly significant case of hives to just a few teeny, tiny hives in the case of a few days, and they will flare up again just as quickly. I have attached an image of her in just a couple days time - left image is first while the right image is a few days later.
I should also mention that in these time periods the bedding did not change, and to our knowledge (unless something changed at the plant), neither did her grain. There was a new hay supplier fall of 2012 for a brief period of time, but her hives well outlived the new hay (beyond 4 weeks).
Has anyone else had similar issues? Have you found something that worked for your horse?
