I've had a bad problem with a mare for the past two years. She's been itching like crazy. She has been sitting in my fences, body slamming my fences, body slamming the walls in her stall to get a full body scratch. She's been wrecking the place and herself. She itched sores on her neck and face down to the hide. It just suddenly began one day out of nowhere two years ago and when I say I've done everything for this horse I could think of, I did. I clipped her religiously so she would be comfortable but she kept itching .I thought it was maybe blade wash so I cleaned my blades in alcohol instead. I bathed her in iodine and aloe. Heck I fed her aloe juice. I fly sprayed her with an assortment of sprays. I de-loused her and increased her de-wormer. I stripped her stall several times, put down mats, changed bedding, changed bedding companies, gave her vitamins for her coat, you name it, I did it. I have worked myself insane till I was blue in the face but I could not get this mare comfortable for nothing .And oh, please note, this also went on during the coldest days in winter too. Summer, winter, this horse was allergic to herself I thought. I was about to give up and take her to the hospital for maybe a steriod or skin scraping. But trust me, this horse was getting worse and worse up until about two months ago. Then it suddenly just stopped. That fast. Then I realized what it was. The feed. Ever since I changed over to just plain old oats, she no longer is having that problem. Before you ask, and not wanting to cause a stir over feed I'm just saying I found the culprit. She was on the Purina Miniature Horse and Pony Feed for the past two years and that's when it began.I cannot imagine what could have been in that food ingriedients to set her off but that's it. Before that, she was on Strategy with no itching.
Which leads me to tell you how my experiement with feeding straight oats is going. Pretty good. I can't complain except I have one mare that was not happy about it and picked at it at first.. We are getting our minerals, good quality hay and grassy pasture and there is no complaint. We have very little grass bellies too now. Here's an example of how they look
This is Merry Lee my 2 year old filly taken two weeks ago
This is her sister the pig, Double Wide and thank heavens she dumped some weight
And this is Glory taken two weeks ago
Which leads me to tell you how my experiement with feeding straight oats is going. Pretty good. I can't complain except I have one mare that was not happy about it and picked at it at first.. We are getting our minerals, good quality hay and grassy pasture and there is no complaint. We have very little grass bellies too now. Here's an example of how they look
This is Merry Lee my 2 year old filly taken two weeks ago
This is her sister the pig, Double Wide and thank heavens she dumped some weight
And this is Glory taken two weeks ago
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