The vet just left...

[CAM]

I just had the vet out because our aging pony appeared to have an allergic skin reaction to something at our new place. Horror of horrors, it is from ticks! She has them all around the base of her mane and likely elsewhere too. Now that we live in an area with a large deer population and lots of meadows, my horse has acquired ticks. What do you guys do to get rid of them other than just picking them off and what is your maintenance program for those in areas with high levels of ticks? No one else has them yet but all need to be sprayed to prevent them. I asked the vet what other people do that live in areas like ours and he said some just let their horses get infested!

My vet recommended Frontline spray every couple of days to see how it works for our horses. Sounds like this could be a year-round program now.

I also have to pick up the squeeze tubes for the dogs. We have never lived in an area with alot of ticks and have never had a problem with our animals before. Now repeat with me...."I like the country, I like the country, I LIKE the country!" :bgrin

 

[Ashley]

You need to get the birds that eat ticks. To bear with me as I am going to butch there name, Geniea Hens. Plus pulling them off constantly.

You dont want to let them build as it can kill the horse. Pay close attention to the tail, around the butt and up in the mares bag. They get them everywhere but that is where I find them the most.

 

[nootka]

Ugh! Ticks! Gross! I feel your pain, Debra.

I will say that in 11 years of living at this place, we've never seen ONE tick on dog, cat, or horse. Thankfully!

I have heard that like Ashley says, that the Guinea Hens will devour ticks and greatly reduce their numbers, though then you may have to protect them from the predators around, as well, and that may present yet another problem.

I really wish I had some tips for you, I've only ever dealt with a few ticks, and one of those was on someone else's cat, and another was while we were living in Goble, OR. We drenched them in alcohol or something and they let go on their own.

Hope the Frontline works!

Liz M.

 

[Reble]

Apple cider vinegar is a great remedy for dogs and horses, to clear and prevent problems with ticks fleas etc.

Can be but in their water 1 tablespoon ACV for prevention

Also spray on body.

I would also clean stalls and put down lime.

Hope this helps

:

 

[CAM]

You need to get the birds that eat ticks. To bear with me as I am going to butch there name, Geniea Hens. Plus pulling them off constantly.

You dont want to let them build as it can kill the horse. Pay close attention to the tail, around the butt and up in the mares bag. They get them everywhere but that is where I find them the most.

Thanks Ashley! I will check all those other places and I agree, how terrible to let them stay on your horse. As for the Guinea Hens, I heard they are extremely "vocal" and thought 1) I didn't want all the noise, 2) they may draw the predators in being as they are chickens, and 3) I really want to try to avoid have a full fledged farm with many different animals requiring many different feeding regimines because I am mostly single-momming it for now with my husband gone so much. I spend most of my time right now in a car shuttling kids to and from their schools unfortunately, and want to keep my work load to a minimum.

Of course, the only thing I know about chickens is from my grandparents farm as a kid and I was only responsible for their care during the summers.

Not to sound stupid but is there any other way to get the ticks off besides pulling them off one-by-one? Could you use a sweat scraper or maybe a curry comb or will this break them off leaving the head inside?

Apple cider vinegar is a great remedy for dogs and horses, to clear and prevent problems with ticks fleas etc.

Can be but in their water 1 tablespoon ACV for prevention

Also spray on body.

I would also clean stalls and put down lime.

Hope this helps

:

Does Apple cider vinegar come together or do you mean Apple cider AND vinegar? Does the size of the water tank matter? I have the mini water troughs as well as the 100 gal troughs for the big horses.

Thank goodness the stalls and bedding were all just cleaned and replaced yesterday however, we do use PDZ. Do I need to use lime?

Edited to add: Liz, we have never had a tick problem in all my years either: dog, cats, kids or otherwise so this is a first for me. So now we have to worry about ticks and I hear the rattlesnakes are bad in the summer here too. :new_shocked: I suppose I need an ostrich or emu for that!

 

[Ashley]

Yes they are vocal. I havent noticed them bring in any other preditors.

THey dont require any care really. We have cracked corn in the coup for them. However rarely are they even in the coup. They spend there nights up in the trees. They really do work. There was one year that we only had a few and there was a world of differance in the tick population.

They are only vocal when they feel threatened, as in if you walk up on them.

 

[CAM]

Yes they are vocal. I havent noticed them bring in any other preditors.

THey dont require any care really. We have cracked corn in the coup for them. However rarely are they even in the coup. They spend there nights up in the trees. They really do work. There was one year that we only had a few and there was a world of differance in the tick population.

They are only vocal when they feel threatened, as in if you walk up on them.

Can they live with the horses in their pastures with a separate coup for shelter and at feeding time? Do they require anything else for care (i.e. vaccinations, toenail trims? :bgrin). So they fly up into a tree at night then? Now I'm SURE I sound completely stupid. I am really not a chicken person. My dogs would certainly go after them if they didn't stay in the pastures but the dogs do only go out when I'm outside with them. My friend has chickens that I care for when she is on vacation and they hang out with the goat and mini in her pasture but not with the big horses. Is that because they wouldn't be safe in with the big guys?

 

[backwoodsnanny]

Yes they are vocal. I havent noticed them bring in any other preditors.

THey dont require any care really. We have cracked corn in the coup for them. However rarely are they even in the coup. They spend there nights up in the trees. They really do work. There was one year that we only had a few and there was a world of differance in the tick population.

They are only vocal when they feel threatened, as in if you walk up on them.

Can they live with the horses in their pastures with a separate coup for shelter and at feeding time? Do they require anything else for care (i.e. vaccinations, toenail trims? :bgrin). So they fly up into a tree at night then? Now I'm SURE I sound completely stupid. I am really not a chicken person. My dogs would certainly go after them if they didn't stay in the pastures but the dogs do only go out when I'm outside with them. My friend has chickens that I care for when she is on vacation and they hang out with the goat and mini in her pasture but not with the big horses. Is that because they wouldn't be safe in with the big guys?

Apple cider vinegar is the product of fermented apple cider. If cider is left to set without preservatives it will all on its own become vinegar. That is where vinegar comes from.

 

[whimsical]

My neighbor had a hard time with ticks at the beginning of this year. She was told to spread DE (Diatomaceous Earth ), which is the filter media for pools. Supposedly it acts like glass to ticks and cuts them and they die. It is completely safe for horses as it isn't a chemical. She had a great reduction once she put this out. You can buy it in 25 or 50lb bags for fairly cheap.

 

[Ashley]

They wont stay in a pasture, they fly. So there is no worries about the dogs. I have a bird dog who insists she must eat them at all times. That is until they all ganged up on her and went after her one day. No more mean doggy trying to eat them.

THey sleep in trees to protect themselves at night. The only thing they really have to worry about up there is owls.

Ours wonder the farm, in and out of the pastures with no problems.

 

[HGFarm]

Thank heavens we dont have those here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[anita]

Didn't read everything.

A source told Guinea pigs are helpfull they eat ticks and others

Anita

 

[TinyMiteVillage]

Guineas are great for ticks and other bugs. They do get vocal but not to bad. They wonder from here to there picking and scratching. They don't require much care maybe some crack corn.

Also check your horses ears. Them ticks will get down in there and make them sore and make them head shy til they are dealt with. We used mineral oil to get the ticks out and clean the ears. They were much better after the mineral oil and ticks gone.

Good luck.

 

[Charlotte]

Is Frontline safe for breeding horses?

Here we have[SIZE=18pt]TICKS[/SIZE] From the woods around us.

I use ZONKIT fly spray. It has residual action. I use it about once per week. lightly spray the tail, mane, forelock(being careful of eyes) and lower legs. And I do check them in the 'odd' places for any I missed. this seems to work pretty well here.

Charlotte

 

[CAM]

Apple cider vinegar is the product of fermented apple cider. If cider is left to set without preservatives it will all on its own become vinegar. That is where vinegar comes from.

Thank you for clarifying this. Where would I get some?

Is Frontline safe for breeding horses?

Here we have[SIZE=18pt]TICKS[/SIZE] From the woods around us.

I use ZONKIT fly spray. It has residual action. I use it about once per week. lightly spray the tail, mane, forelock(being careful of eyes) and lower legs. And I do check them in the 'odd' places for any I missed. this seems to work pretty well here.

Charlotte

That is a good point. Hopefully my vet knows me well enough to know many of my mares are broodmares however, I will double check on that. Where do you get ZONKIT and is it also for ticks too?

 

[~Karen~]

We had Guineas when we had our farm. They can be very vocal, but as was said, usually when they feel threatened. They are good for ticks, but depending on how much area you have, it could take quite a few Guineas. There are alot of preditors that like Guineas, we had owls take them all the time at night ...this owl only took their heads :~( I don't know if that is a common thing for owls to do or if it was just the particular one we dealt with, until he got tangles up in some hot wire. Chicken snakes have killed our younger ones, and Oposumes have killed many many of them. Cats and dogs had also gotten aholt of ours. These anmials would take our Guineas at night. Not all of ours would roost in the trees, and they seemed to sleep pretty soundly. (Alot of ours liked roosting by our house where we had a pole light) We were up many nights trying to rid our place of all these critters that wanted to kill our ducks, chickens and guineas..... but, they do like to eat ticks. :~)

We use to have 2 seperate pastures, and would move our horses into 1 pasture for a week or 2 after putting down Diaznon, then move the horses over and do the other pasture. It controlled ticks, chiggers etc. for the whole season.

(I hate ticks, and horse flys!)

~Karen

 

[Reble]

Yes, I buy apple cider vinegar from a health store, big jug here is around $15.00

But last a long time.

Found this info: http://www.earthclinic.com/Pets/acvfordogs.html

http://www.earthclinic.com/Pets/acvforhorses.html

 

[Charlotte]

CAM, ZONKIT isn't labeled for ticks, but contains permetherin (the synthetic insecticide) which has a residual action. I have found that the horses just don't get ticks on them much if they have a light spray of that stuff every week or so. I 'think' it kills the ticks before they can attach. The ticks here get on the lower legs, bottom tail hairs, mane and forelock as the horses graze and walk about. Then the ticks crawl up to where they want to attach. But the ZONKIT seems to put a stop to them.

I'm a fanatic about using anything on my breeding herd since we had the years of abortions, but this hasn't seemed to cause any problem. I spray a bit on the foals too to protect from ticks.

I have found ZONKIT at most of the feed stores around here and in most of the vet catalogs. So It's probably available by internet too.

this is also my program for face flies.....the spray on the forelock seems to help with face flies. Just don't spray towards eyes!

Charlotte

 

[babygoose]

When I lived in eastern Oregon years ago, I was told to give the horses a sulfer salt block. Looks like the big white salt blocks, only yellow in color. It was supposed to keep ticks off. The only proof I have that it might work is my horse had no ticks, but the neighbors horses that ran loose all over the place (darn open range laws!) were just covered in them.

Anyway, it can't hurt and it seemed to work for my guy. If it works you won't have to deal with nasty chemical flysprays and bug repellents all year long.

 

[sedeh]

My vote is for the Guinea Hens!! My neighbor had a whole flock and they just roam the neighborhood. Unfortunately we have some neighbors that don't contain their dogs and they have slowly decreased the Guinea population to just one. We're looking to get some more.....they sure keep the bugs down! I think they're cool birds....they're sometimes noisy but only when they get disturbed.