Itching and Beelzebug
Itching is a problem that affects tens of thousands of horses, ponies and donkeys around the world and almost all breeds and types can be affected. Itching is known around the world by a variety of names, some medical, some colloquial. Itching is an allergy reaction caused by the saliva of biting flies. This saliva, which can be very acidic, can cause such an overreaction by the animal's immune system that some of its own skin cells are attacked in the process. The resulting cell damage causes the symptoms known as itching. These symptoms include severe itching, hair loss, thickening skin and flaky dandruff. Weeping sores may sometimes occur and without attention these can become subject to secondary infection.
In Britain and most of Europe itching is caused by midges/flies of the culicoides family. It can also be caused by simulium equinum, a member of the black fly family. Culicoides tend to be body feeders, whereas simulium tend to be ear feeders.
Culicoides locate their prey primarily by sight, which is why horses with lighter markings tend to get bitten more heavily than darker horses. The reason that these midges bite is that, soon after hatching, the females mate and require a blood meal to mature their eggs. Itching used to be much more of a seasonal complaint generally occurring in Spring, Summer and early Autumn. Indeed, in parts of Europe this itching is still referred to as Summer Eczema . However, with advent of global warming and with periods of warm, damp weather now occurring throughout the year, itching has become a year round problem. Because the winters are much less hard, with shorter and less severe periods of frost and snow, midges and flies are surviving throughout the year and breeding continually. Accordingly, their numbers are dramatically up in the last couple of years and fly strike, coupled with itching is becoming a real problem for horse owners.
The problem usually first breaks out around the mane and tail, then spreads down the neck, withers, ears and forehead. In severe cases this spreads along the spine, around the mid-line of the belly, the sides of the head, the sheath or udder and around the legs. The animal may swish its tail vigorously, roll frequently and scratch on anything available. It may pace endlessly and seek excessive grooming. Even behind an electric fence with nothing to rub on, sufferers often scratch out their mane with their hind feet and bite their flanks, tail and heels. In severe cases they drag themselves along the ground to scratch their belly or sit doggy fashion and pull themselves around the ground to scratch the top of their tail. This complaint can be so irritating as to completely change a horse's temperament making them particularly agitated when flying insects are present.
Anything that temporarily reduces the horse's immune system (stress, injury, even moving to a new home) can cause a horse to develop itching. Once an animal's immune system has learned this particular allergy reaction, then it usually goes on to get it every Spring, Summer and Autumn.
The best way to avoid itching is to keep your horse away from midges and flies. However, this is always difficult, especially on a crowded island such as ours and so the second best way is to prevent the flies and midges from biting it.
A wide variety of viciously effective chemically-based products have been developed in recent years. DEET, benzyl benzoate and permethrin are amongst the strongest insecticides available to man. These all usually work very well to keep your horse clear of flies but, according to several authorities, some of these are themselves skin irritants and may do more harm than good in the long run. Manufacturers warn against using these without gloves or on ponies which are being handled by children, since they can cause eye irritation and so forth. Additionally, if it is necessary for us to protect our skin from these chemicals, one should perhaps question their suitability for applications to a fellow mammal's skin! Altogether these are not a very good solution to itching because of the possibility of the existence of long-term unknown side-effects.
Next there is a range of rugs and blankets which in effect keep the horse in question wrapped up and therefore largely unavailable for the flies and midges to bite. In high Summer this is a bit like wearing an overcoat to avoid becoming sunburnt, but some people swear by these blankets, whereas others swear at them! They're expensive, time consuming to put on and take off and have proved very irritating to some horses who do everything they can to get them off.
Next there are various drugs on the market. Corticosteroids such as depomedrone, kenalog and prednisolone are often prescribed. These are intended to depress the horse's immune system. They may bring temporary relief and in some cases this can be quite significant, albeit short-lived. However, there can be unpleasant long-term side-effects in some animals and with time corticosteroids tend to become less effective, requiring even larger and more frequent doses. It may seem to some people that it's the height of madness to depress the animal's immune system, since that is simply leaving the poor creature open to a wide range of secondary infections whilst its defences are down .
Ultimately, there are a range of products which are oil or grease based and which may contain substances such as oils of eucalyptus, citronella, tea tree and/or various chemical repellents. The purpose of mixing these with an oil base is that flies and midges dislike contact with a film of oil and will tend to avoid it. However, the only problem with these is that they're made up usually using mineral oil, because it's cheap, along with a natural oil (e.g. tea tree oil, etc.) the combination of which can itself cause allergic reactions in some animals. Place almost any naturally occurring oil in a predominantly mineral oil mix and you will always get some precipitation of fatty acid compounds at different temperatures. Therefore these are not good for the skin and in any event they are relatively unpleasant to use.
Finally, there is a completely new approach to the treatment of itching, mange, lice infestation, mite infestation, fly strike and head shaking. This is a product known as Beelzebug which has been developed by Taylors Hill, the manufacturers of Equr (the effective natural remedy for Equr ). Beelzebug is a blend of naturally occurring plant oils, which prevent flies and biting insects from feeding. These resinous oils are produced by plants in nature to prevent insects from infesting and feeding upon them and they work by blocking what is known as the motility of the insect's gut. Effectively, this means that they jam up or switch off the flies biting mechanism preventing it from feeding. As a consequence of this the insects usually die of starvation or go elsewhere in search of a meal! Entirely safe to use and biodegradable, Beelzebug has no side-effects other than a dramatic reduction in the fly population around the stables and the horses!
As in all things, Nature's way is ultimately the best way, so if you can't move your horse away from the flies, then persuade the flies to stop biting it - by using Beelzebug .