In addition to providing honest advice, we at AskHELTIE believe it's important to have a wealth of information available for horse owners. This way, you can expand your knowledge and help your horse to the best of your ability. Together, we ensure that horses come a little closer to nature.
Detox
Sweet itch
Step 1 approach to summer eczema: detox!
Do you have a horse with sweet itch? A detox is the first step in the total approach to summer eczema. It ensures that the body has more capacity to process the saliva of the culicoides. This is because all accumulated waste products are cleared during a detox. How exactly this works and what is important to read can be found in this article.. Why detox? It is inevitable that horses ingest toxins in their bodies. Through drinking water, food, medication, vaccination, radiation, and deworming, these toxins enter the body. The body will eliminate most of these toxins through the liver and kidneys. However, some of these toxins cannot be processed by the body and are stored in the body. You can think of it as the filter of a car. This too will eventually become full and need to be cleaned. If this does not happen, the car will not be abl...
Skin
Insulin resistance
Sweet itch
Do fewer horses have sweet itch than we think?
When horses are scratching in the summer months, it is often quickly assumed that a horse has summer eczema (SME). However, there are many more causes of scratching in the summer months. This leads to many horses being treated as if they have summer eczema, without results. Therefore, it is very important to determine the cause of the scratching in the summer months. A horse may react to sugars in the diet, be sensitive to insect bites, be overweight, or have itching for other reasons during the summer period. There are also horses that scratch from grassland treated with artificial fertilizers. So, a horse scratching in the summer months does not always have sweet itch. Below is an overview of possible causes of itching in the summer and what measures you can take.. Itching Due to Overweight Most horses in the Netherlands carry a very generous amount of weight. Just like with humans, we all know that being overweight is not healthy for horses. But did you know that overweight can cause itching in horses? Fat deposits cause small inflammatory reactions under the skin, especially around the mane. These inflammations cause irritation, leading the horse to scratch. Scratching creates wounds that cause further inflammatory reactions at those spots, and this cycl...
Salmon oil
Sweet itch
Salmon oil has a positive effect on sweet itch.
Mosquito bites cause allergic reactions in horses with sweet itch. These allergic reactions are actually all small inflammations under the skin that cause extreme itching. Unfortunately, there is no miracle cure for sweet itch, but you can control the itching. Salmon oil can contribute to this. Read in this blog what positive effect salmon oil has on sweet itch.. Salmon oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids Omega-3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids. This means that the horse needs to get them through its diet because the horse cannot produce them in the body. There are 3 types of omega-3 fatty acids: Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA): plant-based Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA): found almost exclusively in fatty fish Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA): found almost exclusively in fatty fish Horses that have access to fresh grass get omega-3 (ALA) this way. The amount of o...