Brittle mane following sweet itch
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Mr Tom
23 Mar 2010 20:11
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My Friesian came to me with sweet-itch and had rubbed away about a third of his mane. The sweet itch is now under control by using Boett rug. However the mane is still non-existant even though its over a year since he's been scratching. The hair does grow but is very brittle and breaks off straightaway. I've tried pig oil and baby oil but it doesn't seem to do much. I wonder if the hair follicles are damaged. Help
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Horse Hero Guru
24 Mar 2010 21:42
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Hi Mr Tom
The hair you can see on your horse is already dead. If it starts to grow then the hair follicles are functioning. If you want it to grow long and strong then you are going to have to improve the rate at which it grows and protect what is growing.
The only way in which you can increase the growth rate is to make sure that your horse is receiving a balanced diet – many people find that a deficiency of magnesium makes the hair brittle – but do remember that just supplementing one mineral or vitamin unbalances the whole diet, so I would suggest that you use a good broad spectrum supplement (and also remember that most calmers are just magnesium supplements, so you may find that you end up with a more hairy and more laid back horse!)
To maintain the hair that is growing be very careful how you look after it – gentle massage will stimulate blood supply and growth, but brushing will also pull out the hair, so you have to tread a fine line with what you do.
As with your own hair, avoid strong chemicals or detergents, but keep the mane clean using plain water.
You also have to bear in mind that your sweet itch treatments and rug are actually doing all the wrong things for your horse’s mane. The full rug is going to rubbing the mane and will be harbouring grease, sweat and dirt that will damage the growing mane – and as for all those chemicals to kill or drive away the midges… The balance between protecting the mane and preventing the sweet itch is something that you are going to have to work out by trial and error – I would definitely try lining the part of the rug that goes over the weak mane with silk to try and prevent friction between rug and mane.
Good luck – horses with sweet itch suffer enough from the allergy, let alone having to have a scruffy mane as well!
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