Horses that test positive to multiple foods could be dealing with a condition called Leaky Gut Syndrome. Leaky Gut Syndrome is a breakdown of the protective intestinal tract lining, coupled with an imbalance in the horse’s natural intestinal flora. This imbalance interferes with the horse’s ability to completely digest their food. The breakdown of the intestinal lining allows the larger proteins from improperly digested food to be absorbed in the bloodstream. These larger proteins are interpreted as foreign invaders and trigger an immune response, resulting in a food sensitivity or true food allergy.
If your horse’s allergy test results indicate they are sensitive to certain foods, reduce the sensitivity by removing these foods from your horse’s diet.
Topics: Horses, Allergens, Veterinarians
Insect bite hypersensitivity (bug bite allergy or IBH) is a common summer problem. Susceptible horses are actually allergic to the insect’s saliva. Horses can have allergic reactions to any biting insect, but the most common are Culicoides (also known as gnats, midges, sand flies, and punkies), black flies, stable flies, horse flies, and mosquitoes.
Topics: Horses, Allergens, Allergy Treatment, Serum Allergy Testing
Equine Asthma | Inflamatory Airway Disease (IAD) | Recurrent airway obstruction (RAO)
Equine Asthma, a term that encompasses various syndromes including Inflammatory airway disease (IAD) and Recurrent airway obstruction (RAO).
Topics: Horses, Allergens, Allergy Treatment, Veterinarians
Allergies caused by different environmental and barn conditions are becoming increasingly prevalent in horses. Most horses no longer roam the fields and graze on fresh grass; they now spend most of their day in a stable, where there is often poor air circulation. Additionally, the growing use of manufactured diets, instead of freshly-grown grasses, can lead to the development of allergies. Allergies in horses are often cumulative, meaning the symptoms — including hives, coughing, intense itching, and nasal discharge — are the result of a reaction with several different allergens, not one specific allergen.
Topics: Horses, Allergens, Veterinarians
Below a heartwarming story about horse Eleanor and a big thank you from her owner Charlotte.
Topics: Success stories, Horses
Allergies are triggered by diverse environmental, dietary, and seasonal factors. Although hyposensitization therapy is often the best option to clear up an allergy, there are many ways to reduce symptoms and increase treatment effectiveness. It should be noted that, although these tips and tricks will decrease allergy symptoms, they alone cannot be the only treatment option. Best results are observed when these tips and tricks are used concurrently with hyposensitization therapy.
Topics: Horses, Allergens, Dogs, Cats, Allergy Treatment, Veterinarians, Serum Allergy Testing
To successfully treat allergy or atopy in dogs, cats and horses, a multi-modal approach is often required. This includes environmental control, topical control, systemic treatment and allergen-specific immunotherapy. Although environmental control is just one part of the multifaceted treatment, there are a number of measures that can be taken.
Animals can be allergic or sensitive for pollen from many different grasses, plants and trees, but which pollen are causing the most frequent sensitisation in animals? Artuvet had a look in their database with serum test results for the past two years and created a list of the top 10 pollen for dogs, cats and horses.
Eight years ago the world collapsed for Esther Klok, owner of top sport horse Diesel. It started when Diesel was in the Dutch team (A-squad single driving), he developed hundreds of lumps within 10 minutes. After a lot of examination by Diesel’s veterinarian, it turned out that Diesel developed an allergy.
Topics: Success stories, Horses
