Sweet itch

Case study - Imelena (Mel), itching and irritable

Poor Imelena, a fifteen year old quarter horse/paint mare, had suffered from itchy skin since she was three years old. Every summer as the insects started biting she rubbed herself raw and pulled out all her mane and tail. The management solution had been to electrify her pen and stable so she couldn’t rub, which increased her stress levels, it also meant she could never be turned out with the herd, so she spent her days in a small pen. Mel was also constantly in heat, spraying the backs of her legs with the acidic excretions mare’s urinate when in season. She was very attached to her stable mate, a young gelding, and became very anxious when he was taken away from her, even if he was still in view. She was always slightly grumpy and depressed.

Liver Heat

Mel’s main imbalance was her Liver not controlling Heat in her body. She was offered German Chamomile, Geranium and Rose Otto diluted separately in calendula macerated oil and a lotion made from pink clay, rose hydrolat, geranium and chamomile essential oils and neem oil, this was applied to her body where she indicated (mostly on her head, chest and tail) for relief from the itching and protection from the flies. Immediately her seasons normalised and her itching decreased, she took these first oils for about a month by the end of which she was only itching on days of extreme heat. It took a full year and different combinations of oils, plus removing heating foods from her diet, but now Mel is out with the herd even at the height of summer’s flies, heat and humidity without itching at all.