Mites!! Yikes!!

[misssquirrel]

well, hey guys. guess what. we finally got over the problem of the skinny stallion this winter... my mare had a beautiful stud colt in may, and was doin good for about the 1st month after the baby was born... then she and my stallion started goin downhill again on me.... after many many bags of grain, and regular wormings, we got nuthin. i don't even want anyone to see my horses. they are that thin. (the baby is a brick btw, he doesnt seem to be affected at all)
so, i'm at my wits end this morning. and lookin them both over reeeaaaalll close, and what do i find on my stallion, but these little teeny tiny grey things crawlin on his back. you cant see them on the mare, cuz they are the same color as her. but i just wanted to share because it has been soooooo dry around our area, with no rain to help wash the horses and the grass down, yah know?
but i think they are mites. i described them to my mom, and thats what she came up with too. the thing is, i just dusted them with lice type powder a while ago, because i thought they could have gotten sand fleas, and maybe i just couldnt see them. but that didnt work.
so. we bathed them very thoroughly (2x ea) we even gave the colt his 1st bath. what a true gentleman he was! my question is, is there any kind of like medicated shampoo that is safe to use on them that would get rid of these pests???
i just wonder if that was the problem we had last time, and we just didnt see them. my poor mare, i felt soooo bad for her. when we got her wet, we could see the dried blood in her hair from the bites all over her neck and stuff. i feel like such a bad momma, but i wanted to tell my story in case anyone else ran into this 'mystery problem'
we also have a puppy that ended up getting fleas and we've had her for almost 3 months, and our dogs have never had fleas before. thats one thing that made me check the horses AGAIN. i wash the puppy every week with skip flea, it says its safe and recommends to use it weekly. can i use that on the horses???

terribly sorry for the long post. thanks.
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[Tweety]

I've been doing alot of reading on this and from what I can tell mites are usually microscopic and can't be seen most of the time with the naked eye. I think maybe what you have sounds like lice, there are two types of lice that affect horses, the sucking kind and the chewing kind. One of them is small, gray and has a flat body.
You need to treat your horses with topical products that have pyrethrin or permethrin in them, ie:
Horse Lice Duster III @ www.kyhorse.com
Pernectrin II or Tuttle's Brute Insecticide @ www.valleyvet.com

And / or use oral Ivermectin.
It seems that lice can also lead to other more serious health issues including anemia so you might want to keep that in mind also.

Here are 2 web sites that I found that might give you more information.
http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/horse-forums/using-lice-powder-140817.html
http://petcaretips.net/external_parasites_horse.html

Now if it was me, I'd take a pair of tweezers, pull a few of the lil buggers off and take them to my reg. vet just to make sure I knew what I was dealing with, that is also my advice to you.
Just soak a cotton ball in alcohal and put it in the zip-lock baggie or baby food jar, what ever ya use. My Vets wouldn't charge anything to do this but yours may charge you a little, just call before you go and ask them.
I also would not use any dog products on your horse unless your Vet says it's safe to use, besides if your horses have lice and you use a flea and tick dog shampoo on them it may not even kill lice.

Tweety

[misssquirrel]

tweety, sounds like we're on the same page. we stopped at farm & fleet this afternoon, and i picked up bronco spray (it lists lice and fleas among other creepy crawly critters) we also got strongid paste this time because we did zimectrin last time, and 2 50 lb sacks of good grain at a discounted price. yay! will see how that goes. and will check with my own vet tomorrow, but found all this on sat, didnt want to pick his brain on a weekend.
thanks!!
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[misssquirrel]

yes, you are right. lice. my bad i just wanted to elaborate. i checked out my bottle of endure, (i think thats what it is, not home right now) it has a higher concentration of permethrins and pyrethrins than the dog shampoo has. the thing is, the dog shampoo is not labled for horses. but my vet did say its ok, but the spray will do the same thing of course. i have to use water based spray on my stallion, because he had a reaction once to an oil based one. i saw at farm and fleet, a bottle of something that was like a liquid iron supplement... it was in the horse section, and i believe it said blood something or other on the bottle. it was iron and a bunch of vitamins and minerals. i forgot to ask the doc about it. has anyone used that before?
thanks again!
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[Tweety]

Ummm, was it in a reddish brown bottle, I'm wondering if your thinking about Red Cell, I think that is supposed to be good for building horses up, I know it has vitamins and minerals in it. They used it at the racehorse farm I worked at and also the last farm I worked at that had the warmblood eventing horses. I've never used it but alot of people have so it must be fairly good stuff. I think it's also supposed to help with building up their blood but I'm not 100% for sure.

I'm sure some of the other members have used it and they can provide you with more info and better help then me, I'm just glad you found out what the problem is and how to fix it. Animals don't have hands so ya know its gotta be hard for them to scratch all their itches.....LOL I have about 4 rabbits right now that are on diets because they can't clean their own butts must-less scratch their own itches...LOL...guess that's what they figure I'm there for, I scratch all down their backs and they lick all over my hands and arms....I guess when I think about it my payment is fair..... scratches for bunny kisses....LOL

Tweety

[misssquirrel]

tweety, yep red cell. i think that was the one. there are a bunch in my valley vet supply mag too... but when i think of it, if you (a person) are low iron, or like if you donate blood, you dont normally have to take medicine to get better, you usually just have to eat something. so if we've taken away the thing that is bringing them down, they should bounce back relatively soon then, especially the way i've been feeding those critters!! lol.
and a big awwwwwe...... lol. i want bunny kisses!! just not chubby bunny butts. lol.
my mom was looking at flemmish giants at the fair this weekend. the girls that had them should be calling her today. but i think i'm alergic to bunny hair, so i will just go visit her bunny. lol.
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[Tweety]

Here is what I would do: Unless your just really rich and need to spend "X" amount of dollars each month to keep from paying so much in taxes or unless you just want piece of mind and price doesn't matter, I'd just watch your horses very close for the next month or two.

If you've had your horses for alot of years and you know who they are as people (I think of all my animals as people with furry bodies) then it is you who is going to notice the slightest changes in them. Your the one who will know if they don't act like they feel better, if they still look droopy, if they are just not acting like themselves, or still haven't put on any weight. If you read their body language and actually listen to what they are trying to tell you, apply it to you own body and then ask yourself questions like, When do I lay around and sleep most of the day? Answer: When I'm sick or don't feel well. Then it is going to be you who knows what is going on with your horses, I realize most people have to work and don't get to spend all day playing with their animals like I do and that is why it's important that you set aside some time to stop, look, and listen. Your horses (animals) are depending on you to catch these subtile (sp)lil differences that nobody else would notice.
This is what I would do: along with feeding good quality feed, good quality hay, a vitamin/mineral supplement and fresh clean water on a daily bases.
Then if you see no improvements or changes for the worse in the next month or two call the vet a have some bloodwork done, there could be something totally different that is causing this condition and the sooner you get it diagnosed the sooner you can treat it, because we vet so many of our own animals I'm not the kind of person that goes to the extremes of "oh...I found a bump on my horse, it must be cancer, I've got to call the vet right now or he is going to die!!" sometimes things just take a lil time to get better, however if they keep getting worse then it's time to talk to a vet.

Here's another message board that might give you some more insight on this topic.

http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/horse-forums/need-info-on-iron-142669.html

Tweety

[misssquirrel]

*lol* definately NOT rich. just trying to educate myself about what's out there, and what does it do and where can i find it cheap & fast if i need it. the reason i've sounded so dumb about all of this, is it's never happened to me before! i've helped my mom with her breeding operation from the time i was like 11 or 12. and i mean making big decisions for a kid that age, not just watchin. lol. now i'm 3mumble0ish and i've had these 2 horses since they were foals born on our place, we were blessed in the sense that the bad things that did happen, we were able to spot and take care of right away. my gut decisions have been just about right on though through this, so that makes me feel pretty good. guess i just need to stop second guessing myself, but still call a vet or ask q's if i need a 2nd opinion. tanks a million!
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