09/01/2025
😵💫 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘀
❗️ Pruritus is the sensation which triggers a physical reaction such as scratching, biting, or rubbing. Unfortunately, pruritus is a very common symptom of the horrible condition known as Queensland Itch, which is actually an allergy to the saliva of Culicoides spp. (midges/sandflies).
🐴 Where equines are concerned, the cause of pruritic tendencies can generally be linked to one of two triggers (or both): Diet/Health and Environment/Climate.
🌱 Diet and Health
Without turning this article into a novel, below is a list of potential dietary and health triggers that I have compiled since working in the field, and in particular with horses in Northern Australia who tend to tear themselves to pieces during this time of year.
➖ Feed intolerances, sensitives, allergies.
➖ Excessive or increased heat production in the hindgut.
➖ Excessive proportions of non-structural carbohydrates in the diet.
➖ Vitamin and mineral deficiencies and imbalances.
➖ Inadequate essential fatty acid supplementation.
➖ Mycotoxin accumulation in forage sources that are not targeted with a toxin binder.
➖ Reduced immune response and digestive health as a result of poor nutrition, illness, or prolonged periods of medications such as NSAIDs.
🪰 Environment and Climate
These are the most common environmental and climatical triggers that may onset an immune response or skin hypersensitivity in equines.
➖ Insect bites and insect saliva.
➖ Parasite infestations.
➖ Hot, humid, and wet weather.
➖ Excessive sweating with sweat left to dry on the skin without regular removal.
➖ Increased seborrhoea (dandruff) production.
➖ Mycotoxin accumulation in forages; particularly those that are lush or rich in sugar.
✨ I will be totally transparent here and admit that you cannot always eliminate Queensland Itch in equines unless you are able to prevent them from being bitten by Culicoides spp. altogether. In my experience, if you can get immune and digestive health functioning at an optimal or improved capacity, the horse has a much better chance of being able to combat inflammatory triggers.
🐎 If there is one piece of free dietary advice I can offer to those who are dealing with skin inflammation and hypersensitivity in their horses, whether it be due to Queensland Itch or another inflammatory cause, it is to reduce/remove as much sugar and starch from the diet as possible, make sure you are feeding appropriate and balanced amounts of copper and zinc, make sure you are feeding a quality source of omega fatty acids such as linseeds, flaxseed oil, or marine based EFA’s, and implement a good quality toxin binder such as Mycosorb A+ as even though a Mycotoxin binder won’t influence insect allergies, Mycotoxins can cause an array of skin issues and infections on their own so eliminating the risk of one skin issue will theoretically reduce the impact of another.
👩🏼⚕️ There is also a very new veterinary prescription-only product called called Equicort which is showing promising results in the treatment of Queensland Itch following field studies:
https://dermcare.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Equicort-Tech-Book.pdf
