When even a natural fur coat is too much.

As Autumn set in my yearling began to itch. All through the summer with the midges and flies he’d been out naked and nothing seemed to bother him. At first I just put it down to the change of season and change of coat. But the itching was getting worse and he was rubbing his mane and tail badly. At this point I started washing these areas and putting anti itch creams on. I watched as he was literally going mad scratching himself on anything he could find and rolling non-stop. I spoke to the vet and I considered lice, so I changed his bedding and gave him a good shampoo, but still no change.

During the summer/early Autumn he’d had a rain sheet on. So when the weather was bad I again put the rain sheet on, but this time he just ripped it off and destroyed it. If I tried to cover him up he started ripping!

Now I was thinking this must be an allergy, so I stopped his young horse mixes and put him onto a natural grass nuts and grass chaff with a supplement. Still no change.

The only thing that had changed were the seasons and his coat, so I decided to do some Googling considering this and wondering if he was hot??? I found a thread on hot horses and how they’d had to be clipped and only have a thin sheet even in the winter. One lady had spend £4,000 on vet bills to discover in the end the horse was just hot!

So  while he was eating his breakfast yesterday I clipped him, just leaving a blanket over his back and his legs on. I then gave him a very good wash, after which I could see all the rubs and marks he had made down his neck from rubbing like crazy, poor lad.

Needless-to-say I now have a very happy and comfortable young horse grazing in the field with a rain sheet back on and which he is no longer trying to tear off.

The weather has been rainy and horrible but it hasn’t been cold and poor Valentine was wearing a very thick coat before it’s removal. Something to consider if you have a rug shredder or an itchy horse. They do try and tell us, we just need to listen a bit harder.

 

 

 

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