Damn horsefly bite!

Always carry a can of Wasp-eze with you just in case you are bitten because it needs to be sprayed on the bite immediately.

Fortunately we don't have them round here because we're not a livestock area but when we lived in Norfolk I even kept a can in the laundry basket because the washing line was next to the calf sheds.

A visit to the pharmacist is probably a good idea.

I like Anthisan but find it spreads the bite outwards when I apply it. ?

This may help. I have been plagued by a bee sting for days, always flashes up when I try and sleep. Anthisan helps a bit but today I had a flash of inspiration and took a bog standard Sainsbury anti allergy pill, the sort for hay fever etc. Works a treat, hope it lasts through the night. Horse fly bites are horrid, hope yours eases soon.

You and me too, phoenix, though goodness knows how at the weekend while cutting bushes in a London garden!? Yesterday my nasty leg bite had a red halo as big as a tea cup round it, so today I got an appointment with the doctor who checked my temperature and my pulse. The advice was to take piriton 3 times a day to stop the hot itching. He also gave me a prescription for a skin antibiotic and said to start them if I felt unwell. It is starting to turn more purple now, looks unsightly, hurts if anything brushes against it and is accompanied by two smaller bites on my calf. The GC spend half their day in my bushes and never get anything.

My daughter had to have antibiotics after she was bitten by a horsefly in local woods last summer. I would go to GP if it's no better in a couple of days. Keep going with the antihistamine cream, it can't do any harm.

Definitely see either your GP or pharmacist. I got bitten on two different holidays (Spain and Portugal) and ended up at A & E because my arm (Spain) and my hand (Portugal) swelled. Nothing too serious, but needed yellow stuff (iodine based, I presume) to dab on. The doctors both did the sharp intake of breath thing when I presented with the symptoms! I was instructed to go back if it hadn't subsided by the next day. Good luck!

I'd be inclined to see the doc, or at least ask the pharmacist whether it needs seeing by a doc who could prescribe something effective.
Are you sure it was a horse fly? They are certainly out in force, drawing blood. I keep antihistamine tabs in my dog walking kit, in case one of the dogs is bitten.
Don't want to be alarmist but, it's the tick season. I was bitten by a tick years ago, I had a blister type lump on my leg and some kind of horrible virus type illness for several medical baths - aches, exhaustion etc.
See the pharmacist who will probably advise a docs appointment.
Those lesbian sandals are my fave Phoenix x

See the doc.

Not much help to you now, but I find that anti-histamine cream has to be applied immediately to do a good job. I therefore have small tubes of Anthisan in house, car, handbag, bumbag and rucksack. I put some on a wasp sting last year as soon as it happened, and I never felt a thing!
I hope your bite soon gets better, don't leave it too long before seeing a doctor as it might be infected. For instant relief from itching I find hand sanitizing gel is soothing in the short term.

Might be a Drs job as that happened to my daughter in Scotland mind you and it was a special type of fly that needed antibiotics!!!! Her hand came up like a balloon