Immunotherapy involves injecting very small amounts of the allergens your horse is allergic beneath the skin (subcutaneously). The amount is small initially but increases over several months to achieve an effective maintenance dose.

One of the big advantages of immunotherapy is that it only requires one injection per month. The goal is to make your horse’s immune system less sensitive (or totally insensitive) to the allergens, so that the allergic reaction and symptoms decrease or disappear.

Immunotherapy is effective and for long-term use and will need to be given over your horse’s lifetime.

Every horse responds differently to any given medication, butimmunotherapy is proven to be successful and has a very high efficacy rate. Around 84% of horses improve after starting the treatment, and most show improvements within a few months. In a few cases it can take up to 12 months to see results.

A very small percentage may not improve much. If this applies to your horse, it is important to work closely with your vet, because other factors are likely to be involved in the lack of improvement, such as parasites, food allergy or secondary skin infections. This is why it is important to have regular follow-up, especially during the first year of treatment. Occasionally, it can be necessary to change the dosage and intervals between injections. Sometimes it can be useful to re-test with the NextEQ Blood Test, especially if it is suspected that your horse has developed a new allergy.

If your horse is on immunotherapy and you are not getting the results you expect, you can use our call back form and we will contact your vet to provide assistance about your horse’s care.

Other products can be very beneficial in combination with immunotherapy. Supplements can promote a healthier skin and improve the skin barrier. These include essential fatty acids supplemants, or topical products such as medicated shampoos, sprays and wipes.

Bathing in water helps relieve itchiness and removes environmental allergens from your horse’s skin, but it is important to choose the right shampoo.– Read more about topical products and supplements

If your horse is suffering very badly, steroids are a good short-term solution for controlling itchiness. They are good especially in the early stages, when your vet is still trying to determine whether allergy is the problem, or when starting immunotherapy treatment.

However, steroids do not treat the allergy itself, which means your horse will continue to be allergic and its immune system will still react to the allergens – you will just not notice the symptoms. In the long term, this can create serious problems because other diseases may occur where the main symptom is itching or scratching, including skin infections. You will not be able to notice that something else is wrong and your horse’s condition may worsen. In addition, steroids have side effects and are considered as doping for sport horses.