“Amalfa” – acupuncture for itching

22-year-old German warmblood mare

“Amalfa” is a now 22-year-old German warmblood mare that I treated in the spring of 2013 in Germany. Her owner asked whether acupuncture could help with what was thought to be sweet itch.

Amalfa is a very sensitive mare who has worked in dressage up to Grand Prix level. Shortly before I first saw her she had moved to a new yard. The owner reported that the mare started to itch especially when she came into the stable after turnout, rubbing herself so violently that the box was almost damaged. She scratched all over her body, not only on the typical areas such as mane and tail.

On examination she was initially sceptical and needed a little extra time to relax. I found many muscular tensions and, from the TCM perspective, signs of internal heat and longer-term psychological strain. In this light, the diagnosis of “classic sweet itch” did not seem adequate; instead, many signs pointed to stress and an overtaxed nervous system that expressed itself as severe itching.

I chose a treatment strategy that focused on reducing psychological stress and tension, while at the same time using points that traditionally help with itching and support the skin and digestion. The move to a new stable – together with the change of season in early spring – was probably simply too much for her sensitive system and manifested as intense itching. I treated Amalfa in the morning, and already the same afternoon she did not itch at all when she came back into her box. This was a huge improvement. Over the next days a little itching returned, but nothing compared with what had happened before. Over the following weeks she became noticeably more relaxed, and the itching remained at a manageable level. The case shows how emotional and physical factors are often closely connected – and how acupuncture can gently support both layers at the same time.