Horse allergy diagnostics

Let’s talk allergy diagnostics

When your vet has excluded other causes that relate to the symptoms, a simple blood test will confirm whether your horse is allergic, and which specific allergens are causing the symptoms. Your vet will take a small blood sample from your horse and send it to our laboratory for analysis. We will look for antibodies against different allergens. If the level of antibodies for a specific antigen is above a certain value, it means that your horse is over-reacting to it, pinpointing it as the problem and the cause of the symptoms.

NextEQuine Blood Test

The NextEQ blood test looks for 32 different common environmental allergens, including indoors ones, like house-dust mites and moulds, and outdoors ones like insects and pollens from trees, grasses and weeds. After performing the NextEQ Blood Test you will know exactly which allergens your horse is allergic to and suitable treatment can be given.

It helps if you can reduce exposure of your horse to allergens as much as possible, using insect repellents, for example (if your horse is allergic to insects). We provide information about each allergen and the measures that you can take. – download allergen guide here

Your vet may perform a skin test instead, or do one in combination with the NextEQ Blood Test. This is a skin test in which different allergens will be tested on your horse’s skin, by injecting a small amount of individual allergens beneath the skin. If your horse is allergic to the allergen, a red wheal will be visible at the injection site.

Food allergies

In addition to being allergic to environmental allergens, many horses are allergic to certain proteins in food. For this reason, it is important to exclude the presence of a food allergy.

Immunotherapy

The only treatment that can strengthen your horse’s immune system so that it no longer reacts to an allergen is immunotherapy (also called allergen-specific immunotherapy). Owners of sports horses should note that it is doping-free.

Immunotherapy is tailored for your horse specifically and aims to stop the allergy symptoms from affecting its overall health, comfort and quality of life.

– Read more about how your horse can be treated