Itchie Horse Cured!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        This Butt was made for scratching! So that's just what he'd do! If you weren't payin' attention close, he'd scratch all over you!!! 

This butt was rubbed bald from scratching nearly every spring back in the day.  

I wondered if other horses becomes so miserable in the Spring and Summer, that he/she has trouble focusing on anything, except how much they ITCH! 

It's really not a funny condition.  It can change a horse's personality as the itch just drives them mad.

What you see in this picture is nothing, I've seen horses rub themselves bald in patches.  And even their sweet personalities would change and they would become grumpy, even mean.  I just could not blame them once I experience the hell they were experiencing. 

                                                              

Danny would just be strolling across the pasture or paddock and suddenly drop to the ground, then

he get into a sitting position and use his front legs to push himself back and forth and rub, rub, rub his belly on the ground?

Danny would rub his chest between his front legs until it callused with a thickened layer of hide.  Snce he was about 4 years old until he was 10 or so he did that most summers. 

He'd find a new way to scratch himself with each warm season of itchiness. Not only was there a cost to him as far as his sanity, but also the cost of lotions and potions and bath treatments. And to my heart watching him suffering and not being able to resolve it for him.  

In my quest to find relief for my boy, hundreds of dollars were thrown at sprays and chemicals guaranteed to give him relief that probably cost next to nothing to produce. 

Many of the products required bathing the horse in them every few days. I'm retired now, but I wasn't then and most horse owners have families, jobs, and a herd of horses and live in the Pacific NW where the term “sun breaks” was a coined!

At one point, I just gave up the battle of the itch. I felt bad for him that he was so distressed from Spring until Fall, but I was out of ideas.  He really had trouble concentrating on anything other than trying to make the itching stop.

I discussed the situation with MANY vets and other owners of horses with his same symptoms. There were as many theories as to what causes this problem, as there are horses that suffer with it. Am I right? Those of you with an itching horse know what I'm talking about. Allergic to the saliva of midges? Maybe.  I even learned all about neck thread worms, not his issue but something to be awere of. 

But sometime back I discovered what the problem was that caused Danny and many other horses to itch and rub their hair out.  For some horses it can be lice or mange, but for us, it was bird mites. 

I discovered this quite by accident.  Bird mites! Are you kidding me?  Mites picked up from birds landing on a horse's back or infesting the barn, stored blankets, which are just a few ways they get to horses.  It's so common and the itch from bird mites is just maddening.  I know because I've gotten them off horses who are infested with them, in my own hair! It is just terrible.  You cannot do anything or even think straight until you rid yourself of them! 

So how did I figure that out, it was a series of serendipitous experiences.  Initially, I discovered bird mites after a pair of sparrows made a nest on our back porch under the roof.  I thought this was the coolest thing!  I took pictures daily from the time the eggs were laid, hatched, and everyday as the babies progressed in their development.  The parent birds really hated me for awhile and would dive bomb my head every time I went outside!  

These little guys were covered in tiny orange mites as are 98% of all wild birds.  Before they latch on and start sucking blood from their hosts, they are translucent.  As soon as they start feeding, they turn a rust orange color. 

Some say that parasites like bird mites are species specific meaning not transfer from one species to another, but in the case of bird mites,  I discovered, that is just not true.  They are easily transferred from one species to another, including people, pets, livestock, and poultry.   And since then I think I've met a few pets that suffered with them. Even a goat or two who rubbed themselves to the point they were covered in callused skin and no fur.  

I actually saw the little red mites these hatchlings were covered in crawling from this nest up the wall of our house! So I looked went to my computer and searched "little red bugs on birds" and read all about Bird Mites!  I used delousing powder and carefully treated them and the wall around the nest.  that seemed to solve the problem.  And the babies thanked me, but the mom bird, bounced off my head the next time I walked outside. 

I learned that once the birds leave the nest, the mites will migrate, looking for something warm that is full of blood.  Got swallows nests in your barn?   Is your horse going crazy itching itself on anything it can find?  If so, he or she is probably infested with mites and this problem is actually more common, I've experienced, than lice. 

Thankfully, mites are fairly fragile and if I got them in my hair, (Being under horses daily working on their feet - it happened a few times.) shampoo and conditioner usually solved the problem.  But for horses I use a solution that is a bit stronger and it works. 

I cured Danny's itching (and many horses since then) by bathing him in a solution of water, Dawn dishwashing liquid and a bit of bleach. I've treated many horses this way and always they got instant relief.  The itch almost immediately stopped and their hair began growing back in. 😊 

I'm not a vet and I'm not recommending you try this, but it worked for my own horses with no side affects.  If you're considering it, you might be apprehensive about the bleach so just try the water and Dawn and see if that works.  It might, maybe not as quickly or you may need more than one bath. 

Danny hasn't been itchy like he was back then in many years.  And anytime I see one of our horses rubbing like he was, they get a bath and it generally only takes one bath.  

I once bathed a white horse who was very itchy and I saw gazillions of tiny orange specs rolling off of him in the water.  It was shocking and that confirmed my suspicions that I was not dealing with a simple lice issue.  

To see a horse suffering with this condition can be so sad.  I once tried to tell an owner what was happening with his pretty paint gelding who I'd always known as a sweet, good natured guy, and he refused to believe me. He'd talked to the vet and what did I know.  This horse was normally an easy horse to trim, but when I arrived that day to work on his feet, he couldn't hold his foot up for more than a few seconds before he needed to itch.  I saw he had rubbed large patches of hair out of parts of his body and the owner told me he had started rubbing on trees and the barn and anything he could find.  I knew immediately what was wrong and made the suggestion that he just needed to bath him, my words fell on deaf ears.  He told me the vet advised that it was sweet itch or something and he'd get over it.  Then he later called me to cancel our next appointment and I never saw him or his horses again. 

You might wonder why was the problem only in Spring and Summer.  Maybe could an issue year around in areas where the temps don't drop much in Winter.  Here in the PNW though, the warmer seasons are when the birds are out, and it's likely mites don't survive cold temps.  I need to consult with an entomologist!   

So Danny is going on 22 this year and he's pretty happy that experience is behind him.  Haw, behind him. 🤣