Essential oil spray reduces clinical signs of insect bite hypersensitivity in horses

Objective To assess the efficacy of an herbal spray combining various essential oils, with a claim of mast cell stabilisation, antipruritic, anti‐inflammatory, and insect repellent effects on the clinical presentation of insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) in horses. Design Double‐blinded, placebo‐controlled, randomised, cross‐over clinical trial. Methods Twenty adult horses with clinical IBH were treated with a daily application of herbal spray or placebo for 28 days in a randomised, cross‐over fashion, separated by a>28‐day washout period. Horses were examined and scored prior to and after the completion of each treatment. Histopathology was performed on four horses. Owners kept daily diaries of observations. Results The herbal spray significantly reduced the severity of all assessed parameters (pruritus, excoriations, lichenification and alopecia; P < 0.05) compared with baseline values (pretreatment) and with placebo. Owners reported improvement of pruritus in 19/20 horses (95%) with complete resolution in 17 horses (85%) following treatment. Skin biopsies showed resolution of orthokeratosis in 4/4 horses, reduced thickness of the stratum spinosum in 2/4 horses and complete resolution of histopathological abnormalities in 1/4 horses after treatment, compared with either no change or deterioration of histopathologic lesions after placebo. No side effects were observed. Conclusions The tested herbal spray may be an effective treatment for the management of equine IBH.