Horses and Allergies

Horses can and do develop allergies, just like humans.  Penny and Sadie tend to be the most susceptible in our barn, Penny gets runny eyes during the summer months and Sadie is more irritated by the flies than the other horses.  
We learned the hard way this week, that also like humans, the attacks can be quite severe.  When Penny came in the barn last week with wounds on her chest and neck we initially thought she got caught up in something.  

We quickly figured out that she had actually caused these wounds herself by rubbing. We cleaned her up, treated the spots and kept her in the barn the next day hoping she had just gotten into some stickers.  

Over the next couple days Penny was covered in hives, you could literally see bumps all over her.  After a call to a vet we began treating her with Benadryl. We wanted to give her a scrub bath with betadine, but the weather was just a bit too cold.  Penny colics easily so we didn't want to make a bad situation worse.

When there was no improvement with the Benadryl and major swelling in her legs, we had the vet come out yesterday to take a closer look.

The weather was a bit warmer so she got the scrub bath.  While the scrubbing felt good, the poor horse is so itchy, she was not a fan of the cold water!

Tig was there to help every step of the way and wanted to check everything out, such a goofy kitty.  The vets were very entertained by him!

Penny now has leg wraps that will stay on for 3 days (hopefully, keeping those on can be a challenge!), she got a big shot of antibiotic and steroids and will be on continued medication for the next week.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know exactly what caused it.  She may have rolled in something, possibly nettle.  Since she had hives all over her the vet believes it was more likely caused by something that she ingested.  This could be a weed in the field or something she grabbed and ate on a trail ride.   We had recently started her on a hoof supplement so we stopped that immediately in case she had a reaction to one of the ingredients.  

Thankfully she is already showing signs of improvement today, she's feisty and fighting with Dolly so things are definitely getting back to normal!  With the swelling in her legs there is always the fear of laminitis so we have to keep a close eye on her feet, but we are encouraged with how she looks today. 

She is still very itchy though, so if you take a minute to scratch her you'll be her best friend!