Boy, do I feel like a total idiot!!!!! Any suggestions?

[Roxy's Run]

I feel like a total fool right now!

A while ago I posted about a mare that I have that was having major skin problems and tried EVERYTHING short of body clipping her - treating her for rain rot, antifungal, allergies, antibiotics, etc. Well, she has been doing better but she is losing hair like crazy and her coat looks horrible. It is all "matted" and just falling out with crusty things all over. So today I had had enough and tried to head and neck clip her to see exactly what I have going on here. Well, she certainly put up a good fight to the clippers which she normally does not do. Well, I got to see why. She is FULL of LICE!!! I mean FULLLLLLLLL!!!!! Her head and neck where just crawling with them!!!! So I immediately wormed her with Ivermectin and my friend gave me a can of lice powder for horses and I sprinkled that on her and rubbed it in trying to get it down to her skin as best I could through her horrible coat. Should I just go ahead and body clip her and dust again in a week? My thinking is that this will allow the sun to get to them and kill them. Plus allow the powder to get in better. Anyone ever have a horse with a BAD BAD BAD case of lice???? How could I have not seen them before??? I sure wish I had clipped her earlier but I was concerned with the cold winter weather and she was starting to lose weight so I didn't want her to suffer through the cold even though I would have a blanket on her. Stupid, Stupid me!! :arg!

Linda

Roxy's Run Miniatures

 

[Keri]

I had a big horse a long time ago with it. I use diluted clorox (like way diluted), but it helped get into his coat and get rid of them. Good luck with it! I know how you feel! OH!

 

[Lucky-C-Acres-Minis]

We had a few mares come down with lice last winter and we just dusted them and worked it down to the skin with a curry and dewormed them.. We weren't able to clip them because Ohio winter's are so cold, but the dusting worked great and then when it was warm enough we clipped and bathed really well.. If you know it's going to be warm enough to clip her out I'd go for it, give her a really good bath and then dust her again..

 

[royalview]

One trick that worked for us was to use a vacuum on the mini before redusting, it really helped get rid of them alot quicker and the mare LOVED the feel of it, We couldnt clip either cause it was too cold and this worked great. Just make sure to get rid of the vacuum bag after each time!! Good luck!

 

[Casnos Minis]

How do horses get lice? Is it the same as humans? IS it from dirty conditions? Or just some thing they get? I don't have a problem, but I want to make sure I never do.

Christy

 

[Becky]

I had a stallion come in last weekend that I discovered had lice. I wouldn't have known, but I clipped his head and neck and saw them crawling. EWWWW!!!!! I, too, dewormed with an ivermectin product and dusted him heavily with lice powder. I would use the lice powder again and worm again in about 10 days. I'd hate to body clip a horse in the winter if you don't have a fully enclosed barn and plenty of blankets to use. Good luck!

 

[Lucky-C-Acres-Minis]

Lice are normally species-specific. However, we found out that the chewing lice of poultry can also affect horses when housed together and that's how ours got it, as we have a couple banty hens and rooster who like to roost in the top of the horse barn.. OH! So we caught them and tossed them back out in the hen house and no problems this winter!

 

[Boinky]

there are some fly sprays that are de-licers you might want to spray them daily with a fly spray as well... especially in area's that are more prone to lice (under the mane ect). might help

 

[dannigirl]

Lice are a real pain, but I don't think I would body clip her. If she is already down a bit in weight, trying to keep warm will make that worse and I just don't think blankets can replace their own hair. I would do some vacumning, a lot of brushing/currying and use the disposable gloves as much as possible. I would also wash the gloves and coats I wore often with a touch a bleach to make sure that any that got on me did not live to get back on her. Then I would also take the powder and work it in very well so as to get it as close to the skin as possible. If the dust cloud is visible, I would try to keep it out of her face as much as possible and wear a mask myself.

Good luck

Angie

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

As far as I know if a bird flies through the barn, they can drop lice on your horses. So I always dose my horse with Ivermectrin and then powder them. Some color horses are so hard to tell. If my mares are pregnant, I would maybe hold off of doing that if they are close to foaling. Call the vet to check. But it is pretty common, gross but common.

 

[MountainMeadows]

Others will say different, but my vets have told me to NEVER dust a pregnant mare, - Ivermectin will help, and a good bath - yes, I know it is middle of winter and hard to accomodate that specific chore, but I have been kown to bath them & bring them into the utility room or garage/shop with a heater blowing on them - takes hours to dry, but it works.

 

[bpotze]

I have been told that there are two different kind of horse lice..I was told by a vet that if your horses get biting lice that you need to worm them with ivermectin and then worm them again in two weeks. The vet also said they were breed specific...but I read that chickens can carry them....so who knows. But from what I have read...treating with the ivermectin at two week interval will get rid of them without dusting...and safe for mares that are in foal.

Becky

 

[albahurst]

We use Durasect II. It is a pour on and works fantastic! Our vet had us use 5 ml per horse- we put it in a syringe and poured a line of it along the topline. Our gelding, who was the guilty party, was then retreated in exactly 28 days (he had a very bad case of lice). We did treat all horses (one time) which were in contact with the gelding, as the lice can spread easily. And, since it is cold now, you could clip a single line down the topline, then do the pour-on. Haven't had any problems since and my gelding is very happy!

Good luck!

Peggy

 

[hahler]

I had it once in my ponies it came from borrowing a friends stock trailer that he had just hauled his cattle in

we used cattle powder everyother day for a week and that worked

we just rubbed it in but thank god we only had it in the mane

dawn

 

[CyndiD]

OH..I feel for you...I had them too and didn`t even know it till I sold a little mare and they found them on her.. OH!

I was sooo embarrassed!! I just had to wait till spring for the dusting and bathing, used ivermectin as mentioned above. My vet told me that they are host specific and they didn`t get it from my banty chickens that were running loose around the barn. However, I hadn`t had any other horses come in for a long while, so am clueless where it came from....if not the chickens.

Anyway, the chickens got a new home...and so far I haven`t seen any since.

 

[Roxy's Run]

Thank you everyone! Well, this morning she was whinnying up a storm, trotting around all full of herself. Her tail wasn't all messed up this morning like it has been from her rubbing so she didn't rub during the night. I couldn't see any creepy crawlers this morning so I am assuming that the Ivermectin and dusting has started to work. I will do a much more thorough look this evening after work. I have no idea where these things come from. No chickens here. All horses are on a routine worming program. The Farm Manager where I work asked if I had pigeons. Yes, I have a flock of pigeons that hang out on the high tension electric lines in the front paddock. He felt that is where the lice are coming from. Around here, I have so much "wildlife" - pidgeons, turkeys, geese, various other birds, groundhogs, deer, fox, snakes, rats, mice, muskrats, occasional bear, coyote, opposum, raccoons, etc. I could go on and on, so who knows.

So now the gameplan is to monitor my mare, dust everyone, dust the stalls and around the barn, next weekend worm her again and dust again. If lice are still present in a large quantity, then I will body clip her and take it from there with a bath and good dusting. At least with her being clipped, the dust and bath will be able to penetrate better. Of course, then blanket her. I just hope I can get this under control.

Thanks again.

Linda

Roxy's Run Miniatures

 

[The Dynamic Duo]

I am right there with you. My gleding had it a long way back and now, at his new barn he has it AGAIN! I checked all of the other horses overly thorough and 1 had a little bit and the other had none but he has a dry skin problem and founder.

 

[Roxy's Run]

Oh, Alyx, I feel for ya! This is NOT fun! I spent 20 minutes this evening chasing her down in the paddock to see what was up. FINALLY, I got her and all lice that I could see were DEAD!!!!

So I'm hoping we are on track here. One thing is for sure, she is feeling a lot better. I can see that by the way she ran circles around me.

But that's ok, as long as she gets better. That's all I care about.

Linda

Roxy's Run Miniatures

 

[outlawridge]

We used Repel X fly spray and also the lotion and it got rid of them super fast! In fact I could see them die almost immediately. One of the wild horses we had adopted from a private herd had all kinds of nastys on him.

We had to treat him periodically because ivermectrin would have created too big of a die off of worms which could have created it's own problems, so had to worm him gradually over several months.