Ticks on minis-Western PA

[mrichmond]

Hi All, I spent several hours grooming the boys this morning and found a tick embedded above Ziggy’s (pinto) eye. I was able to remove the whole thing fairly easily, but was fairly shocked. Years ago, I had full size horses in eastern PA and don’t recall ever having ticks on them. Are they just more prevalent now? We started getting them on the dogs a few weeks ago, so are treating them, but am not familiar with how to keep them off of my minis. Any suggestions?

 

[Abby P]

Equispot or similar works pretty well. You have to religiously apply it every 14 days.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I find if I spritz oil base fly spray on their legs it works pretty well.
I check mine every day for ticks; usually on the chest, and under the jaw. I've found one on the face a couple of times. Ticks are a scourge. My chickens keep them pretty well cleared away from the mowed areas, but when the horses go to the tall grass that seems to be the problem area.

 

[Abby P]

Right, and if they are putting their heads down to graze or walking through tall grass/brush, they can easily get ticks on them without the ticks having crawled up their legs. I know there are also leg bands/collars that are supposed to work but I've never tried them. The Equispot helps a ton with black flies and no-see-ums as well and we have loads of those here so I just use that anyway.

 

[Taz]

This isn't related at all but....How cute are they!!!!

 

[mrichmond]

This isn't related at all but....How cute are they!!!!

They are a little bit cute, aren’t they? I’m completely smitten.

 

[mrichmond]

Right, and if they are putting their heads down to graze or walking through tall grass/brush, they can easily get ticks on them without the ticks having crawled up their legs. I know there are also leg bands/collars that are supposed to work but I've never tried them. The Equispot helps a ton with black flies and no-see-ums as well and we have loads of those here so I just use that anyway.

Thanks, everyone!

We don’t have any tall grass, but the deer walk right along the fence line, so they could easily get on the fence, then onto the horses. We have 8 hens that free range inside the pasture and the paddock so I’m sure they’ll help some. I’ll look into the Equispot.

 

[mrichmond]

I had to place a Chewy order, so got 6 weeks of Equispot for them. I’ll get the next order onto my autoship.