Managing Sweet Itch - Sophie's Story

Sophie was doing an apprenticeship in horse care when she first met Tom, a 13.2hh Welsh C gelding. She quickly fell for Tom and when he was put up for sale as a four-year-old she couldn’t resist buying him. Tom had sweet itch and so Sophie started researching the condition to see if anything more could be done to help him. His mane and tail were badly rubbed and he had short broken hairs and ridges on his skin.

With the help of a fly rug and various creams and sprays Sophie managed to reduce Tom’s itching and with her dedicated routine his mane, tail and skin improved. Then unfortunately a couple of weeks before he was due to move yards, he didn't have his fly sprays and creams put on so when he came in, he was covered in scabs, rubbed off the top half of his mane and had a few open bleeding wounds.

At the new yard Sophie did everything she could to keep Tom comfortable and started bringing him in at night, using a soothing aloe vera gel and adding brewers yeast to his daily feed. Around this time Sophie heard about The Golden Paste Company’s sweet itch trial and jumped at the chance to try something new that might help with Tom’s sweet itch.

Said Sophie: “After just a few weeks of feeding TurmerItch the transformation was unbelievable! Tom’s itching had reduced significantly and his skin, mane and tail improved. He now has a long mane and hardly ever itches! His tail looks great too.

“I feed Tom a scoop of TurmerItch daily along with his balancer, chop and brewers yeast. He still wears his rug from February to November and I make sure his stable is spotless and I use lavender disinfectant to help deter the flies.

“Tom is a much happier horse now. We competed all last year despite the pandemic, it’s been non-stop for us. We won eight rosettes last year and qualified and competed in the West Yorkshire Dressage Finals, placing 3rd overall).  This year we have three rosettes already and have qualified again for the Dressage Finals in June. He’s a happier boy while competing now, having got an excellent plan in place to stop itching occurring.”

Find out more about TurmerItch here.