Charlie with the long sought after cooler

Charlie with the long sought after cooler
Spring NWEC 2013 Novice

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

More about the hives

Willig's hay until Friday the 26th:
am: 1 alfalfa
lunch: 1 local
pm: 3 orchard grass
This variation, we know, causes hives with the "winter" purchase (maybe the 1st cutting from the year??).

Willig's hay on Friday and Saturday:
am: same
lunch: same
pm: 1 alfalfa and 2 orchard grass
This variation made the hives noticeably decrease by Saturday afternoon. (So Friday night's meal alone made a huge difference.)

Willig's hay on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday:
am: same
lunch: same
pm: 1 alfalfa and 2 timothy
This variation made him break out in fresh hives. Yesterday (Monday) there were some huge ones, and a lot of new ones. Today there were a lot more, but not as many huge ones.

So I am going to try for the rest of the week (Wed, Thurs, Fri):
am: same
lunch: same
pm: 2 alfalfa and 1 orchard grass
And cross my fingers that this combination, combined with the Platinum, can keep him hive free until the barn works through the big load.

What I don't get is that the timothy works for the other horse with exactly the same problem (she clears up within 2 days), and the feed store thought that horses with allergies were more allergic to alfalfa and less allergic to timothy because it has fewer minerals in it.
Willig seems to be more allergic to timothy, then orchard, then alfalfa.

The poor guy seemed a little depressed today, and itchy too. He kept his tail in the air a lot, which isn't like him either. I also suspect it's making him "itchy" on the inside, because he seems to get smegma faster, like maybe it's like the people who are allergic to wheat and their intestines act up? (His poop looks fine.)
Have I mentioned I'm frustrated? Why isn't there anything about this on the internet?

1 comment:

Grey said...

Have you tried posting a question to any online groups? There is a powerful lot of combined experience at places like the Chronicle of the Horse forums and rec.equestrian, a newsgroup you can access through Google. Someone, somewhere will have experience with this and may offer some useful suggestions. Good luck to you and Willig.