Rubbing

[J]

Yes I have been grinding flax seed daily to add to his grains, did I leave that out? I use a small coffee grinder...I think it is around a cup that I have been giving him each evening.

If it's sweet itch, I am hoping to have my nice shed and sacrifice area up and ready for them to move in by spring. I bought one of those country vet metered bug sprays to put in there (I am not sure I will have power so I went with battery operated). Has anyone used them?

I figure any teensy bit of relief I can find is better than nothing! assuming of course it IS sweet itch and not something else.

[Michelle Clarke]

Yes, the flax is a great idea....we did quit soaking it though, we had a few horses choke on the thick, globby mess it makes and it would stick the feed together in big clumps. That was when we were feeding the organic pellets - so maybe it would not do that to the oat/barley mix....now we just give it whole. Whole and ground makes the oils available, while soaking makes the digestive enzymes available.

Another great skin/hair asset is Sea Kelp. We did a test group of horses with some itchies, some with brittle hair and some with course coats. Only a few weeks on 1 tbs. 1x day really really made a big difference. Usually we only give 1 tbs. 3x/week for a normal dose. If you give it daily, you just have to watch and not give it to any horse with hyper thyroid - too much iodine - though the spanish horses tend to be the other way, hypo-thyroid, and the extra iodine really helps. One of the products we are working on is a leave in conditioner with liquid sea kelp...