Tell me: b.green algae/Spirulina for allergies

[cyberbay]

-Does it work? Is there a diff between bluegreen and spirulina?
-Where do you buy it (inexpensively)?
-Would you use another approach instead for allergies?

Thanks!

[Boomer]

I haven't tried it, but I've heard that it's stinky so there are some palatability issues.

I'll be interested what people say. I'm on a yahoo! Heaves-Copd group and some people on there have used it along with MSM.

Whatever I try has to be easily accepted - or my mare will turn her congested nose up at it - and continue coughing. :no:

[Altamont Sport Horses]

I've seen it discussed on the EquineCushings Yahoo group. I made a note of it for one of mine that is very reactive to bug bites and gets horrible sweet itch. They recommended spirulina and chondroitin.

I need to get some of this in stock.

[Green Acres]

I have heard of success stories with Spirulina and if you do a search on COTH you find a few threads about it.

However, it didn't help my horse who sufferes from allergies. I also had trouble getting him to eat it but I have found that mixing anything he doesn't like with soaked beet pulp hides the nasty stuff.:yes:

So far I am having success with chinese herbs on my allergy boy.

[AKB]

I bought spirulina but it smells awful so our horse won't eat it.

[joharavhf]

I have my pony on it who experiencing a bout of inflammatory airway disease right now. I am actually thinking he may be allergic to hay...

Anyways, I have him on 1 tbsp. two times a day. It is disgusting. It smells, it "gets airborn" easily so I mix it with his grain and a handful of Triple Crown Safe Starch forage. He eats it just fine, but then, this pony will eat ANYTHING.

I bought it from herbalcom.com - and I bought 2#s of it. It cost about $30 for that plus shipping.

I *probably* won't buy more. My pony is on pretty hefty duty steroids right now to calm the inflammation (prednisolone). He's also on inhaled albuterole. I just had a round of accupuncture done on him, and OMG, I think that has been the most help so far. Vet/Accupuncturist is coming back next Tuesday to do more accupuncture and deliver my chinese herbs for this condition. I've also begun the process of removing hay out of his diet. He used to eat about 25 pounds of hay per day. Now he's down the 7.5 pounds SOAKED for 20 minutes per day, and the rest of his roughage requirements are filled with Triple Crown forage, hay stretcher pellets and alfalfa cubes (the latter two soaked)....

So...another thumbs down for spirulina. It's not the miracle drug everyone makes it out to be....however, it MAYBE just the thing for your horse...so you might want to give it a try!

[hollyhorse2000]

I give my horse an oral (human) antihistamine with my vet's prescription. 10 cc's a day.

[Boomer]

I give my horse an oral (human) antihistamine with my vet's prescription. 10 cc's a day.

Ok... you teased us.. what oral human antihist are you feeding? Does it work? Side effects?

[hollyhorse2000]

Oh, god. I have no idea! Vet phones RX into King's Pharmacy somewhere in Maryland and they send me a jug of it. It's blue. I use a syringe to pull out 10 ccs from a bit before Spring until after the first frost. As far as I can tell, there are no side-effects. (I thought it might make her sleepy, but no.) It's about $65 for the jug. Jug lasts about 3 month or so. I'll try to remember to look at the label this weekend.

[Green Acres]

Oh, god. I have no idea! Vet phones RX into King's Pharmacy somewhere in Maryland and they send me a jug of it. It's blue. I use a syringe to pull out 10 ccs from a bit before Spring until after the first frost. As far as I can tell, there are no side-effects. (I thought it might make her sleepy, but no.) It's about $65 for the jug. Jug lasts about 3 month or so. I'll try to remember to look at the label this weekend.

Yes, curious minds want to know what it is. Also, what kind of allergies does your horse suffer from?

[hollyhorse2000]

Vet just called about something else and I got the name: cyproheptadine (Periactin).

My horse has "hay fever." She was tested with the blood test (some think this is not reliable but I did it anyway). She is allergic to ragweed, pollen, etc. the same kind of things I am minus the cats. :-) Her symptoms are primarily foot problems. This is probably where I'll lose most of you. She does not have respiratory symptons, but starting like clockwork in the Spring she starts to have foot problems aka lamina fatigue/mild laminitis. Is it NOT from the grass as she developed this problem last spring even when she was not on grass. It's a late April/early May onset that continues until about October and then resolves. Vet swears it is allergies, so a year and a half ago, I started her on allergy desensitization shots (which take a year to work). We still ran into an issue in a much reduced way last May, so I started her on the oral antihistamine. We went the rest of the summer and fall 2008 with no problems. I'm trying to prevent it entirely this year, so she's back on the medicine this week. It's still winter in Maryland but you can feel Spring coming and the vet says the hardwood pollen is starting. Better safe than sorry, in my book . . .

[katarine]

I feed it in the spring for my QH whose jowls blow up every spring with allergies. I feed the tablets ( the powder is like anthrax, super duper powdery fine and it REEKS. The tablets reek to but hey, it's better than the powder.

Springtimeherbal carries them. My horse will eat anything that won't eat him, so palatability issues aren't a problem with him.

It does work IM(Limited) E.

[Boomer]

Vet just called about something else and I got the name: cyproheptadine (Periactin).

My horse has "hay fever." She was tested with the blood test (some think this is not reliable but I did it anyway). She is allergic to ragweed, pollen, etc. the same kind of things I am minus the cats. :-) Her symptoms are primarily foot problems. This is probably where I'll lose most of you. She does not have respiratory symptons, but starting like clockwork in the Spring she starts to have foot problems aka lamina fatigue/mild laminitis. Is it NOT from the grass as she developed this problem last spring even when she was not on grass. It's a late April/early May onset that continues until about October and then resolves. Vet swears it is allergies, so a year and a half ago, I started her on allergy desensitization shots (which take a year to work). We still ran into an issue in a much reduced way last May, so I started her on the oral antihistamine. We went the rest of the summer and fall 2008 with no problems. I'm trying to prevent it entirely this year, so she's back on the medicine this week. It's still winter in Maryland but you can feel Spring coming and the vet says the hardwood pollen is starting. Better safe than sorry, in my book . . .

Interesting. I like that it's an oral 1x/day thing. I'm going to look into it! Maybe my vet will also. Looks like it's not that expensive either.

[southern]

Green Acres - I am also using the chinese herbs with pretty good success. Just out of curiousity, what kind of allergies does your boy have and which chinese herbs are you using?

[eventer_mi]

I tried all sort of oral supplements with my allergy prone boy, and I finally bit the bullet and had the bloodwork done for allergy innoculations. The bloodwork was pricey - about $300 - but the shots themselves are not. They average about $20/month, possibly cheaper than that once you are on a regular maintenance schedule of once a month, and THEY WORK. No more runny eyes, coughing, itchies. The best part is that they're legal for competition, whereas a lot of the supplements are not.

[Green Acres]

Interesting. I like that it's an oral 1x/day thing. I'm going to look into it! Maybe my vet will also. Looks like it's not that expensive either.

I tried Cypro with my horse and it worked some at first but then it stopped helping him. You can do a few searches here for Cypro but some folks have thought that Cypro may cause horses to colic. I don't know if there is any overwhelming evidence of that.

[Green Acres]

Green Acres - I am also using the chinese herbs with pretty good success. Just out of curiousity, what kind of allergies does your boy have and which chinese herbs are you using?

My horse has pollen & dust allergies that causes sneezing and headshaking. I had him blood tested and he tested positive for tree, grass, weed pollens and different kinds of molds. I tried allergy shots but it didn't seem to help him. I get chinese herbs from an herbalist in California. One is Calm Shen and the other is a special mix that the herbalist makes for headshakers. I don't know what in the mix but the combination seems to help him. He's not headshake free in the summer/fall but much better than without it.

What about you? What do you use herbs for, allergies?

[southern]

I did the skin testing (twice) and my guy is allergic to alfalfa, clover, nettle, ants and a few other random things. His allergies show up on his skin as hives and sores and a ton of itching. We have been trying the allergy shots since July but his skin reacts so strongly to them we have never been able to get through second vial. We have an equine vet in our area that branched out into the chinese herbs and we are using a combination of two herbs - one to remove the "heat" from his skin and it's called Long Dan Xie Gan and the other one is to "nourish" his skin and it's called Si Wu Tang. It's the first thing that has helped him since the allergies started 2 summers ago. The sores have finally stopped and skin is calm and the pigment has started to return now if he will only grow his hair back!

[cyberbay]

Thanks, everyone, for all of your responses!
To answer some of the queries from posters: my horse has not been tested. But, he just seems to get 'dopey' in springtime, and so I'm attributing to pollen, etc.

The Chinese herbs are related to liver detox, improving his hooves, and then general health. She did not mix them for his allergies, but maybe the next batch could be for that.

So, it seems that there have been some successes and some non-successes with spirulina...

[decorum]

Spirulina works wonders for my horse with respiratory problems but it only helped my mom's horse a little. What really helped her was wetting her hay and putting it on the floor. For skin allergies I recommend nettle leaf powder, it is extremely cheap and very palatable, my picky horse will eat it plain. I get both from herbalcom.

Ann Szolas

[GallopHer]

I've had excellent results from Spirulina and MSM. It does stink, so I had to introduce it to my gelding gradually. Now, he eats it with no problems. During flare-ups, I feed 1 tablespoon, twice per day. For maintenance, I feed one tablespoon, split between 2 feedings each day.

[hollyhorse2000]

Just to chime back in RE: shots and cypro . . . I do have her on desensitization shots. I was told they'd take upwards of a year to work, so last spring was somewhat early for a full result. This spring, theoretically, I shouldn't need the oral cypro as the desensitization shots should be enough. But I wouldn't really know until it was too late and I've decided not to risk it and just give the cypro. Frankly, I can't even swear that is working, but I CAN say that last spring was way better than the spring before.

[eventinglvr]

My boy has very bad allergies to pollen, etc. in the spring and summer. I give him hydroxyzine and it works wonders. The stuff I get is a powder and is very palatable, and the feeding rate is low. It comes with a small scoop (less than 1 ounce), and I usually give 1 scoop/day. I will up it to 2 scoops/day if he gets really bad. I looked at cypro, but my vet recommended this because of the fewer possible side effects.

[cyberbay]

It sounds, 'tho, that s'lina might be worth trying.

For those of you who used MSM, how much per day?

He's getting MSM thru his joint supplement...

[kdriding]

My daughter's horse has an apple and molasses allergy. He is ok with a pelleted grain, but no treats with added molasses. I give him the b/g algae tabs from the vitaminshoppe.com. His enviromental allergies aren't so bad. He gets little hives on his neck and shoulders if they flare up.

The bluegree algae doesn't small as bad as the Spirulina and he eats it right up. I think the years supply of algae cost me about $160 or so and they had a free shipping promo at the time.

[Liberty]

My gelding was experiencing minor respiratory problems, and Spirulina has helped him immensely. I originally bought it from herbalcom.com but found a better deal from Horsetech (2 lbs for $25.95 with free shipping; even less if buying larger quantities). Furthermore, the Spirulina from Horsetech didn't smell as bad as the stuff from herbalcom.com and seems like a better grade.

Here's the link to Horsetech's page where its listed:
http://www.horsetech.com/popular-customs.htm#Quick%20Links%20to%20Product%20Pages

The powdery nature is a bit of a pain in the neck, but I cope with that by cutting a corner of the bag and filling a 1-lb coffee can with it. Much easier to scoop into and considerably less green dust wafting around. Horsetech includes a measuring scoop in the bag.

My horses weren't too thrilled with it at first, but after a couple of meals, they didn't seem to mind and accepted it readily.