Feather Mites Nightmare!!

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kate.l

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Not really sure if this post should be here or in veterinary!!
However.. We've had a coloured cob for the last year who throughout his time with us has suffered with mites. He came to us from a field as a 4yo where to be honest I don't think he'd had the best start in life.
For as long as I can remember he's always itched his legs and mane, so having scrubbed him religiously with dermoline shampoo and various other powders etc with little or no success I decided to hog him and take off his feather.
Unfortunately this made absolutely no difference to the itching on his legs, it did however stop his mane itching. None of our other horses have this problem either, and he's stabled on shavings too so no risk of mites from his bedding...
It must be complete torture for him to be itchy all the time, he's constantly kicking himself and stamping his feet - so a few months ago I took him to our vet and put him on a course of dectomax injections. He's had 3 and this has made no difference what so ever, in fact if anything at the moment he's as bad if not worse than he's ever been. I know this time of year the mites should be dying off but he's just not getting and rest from this at all, poor pony!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, the pony is an absolute star and obviously we want to do our best by him!!
Many thanks
 
Dear OP
I have many years of this cob problem. One idea is to try the following which is great for my mare.
PIG OIL (you can buy in 5 litre tins)
SULPHUR POWDER
Mix them up in a pot until they are a yoghurt thickness. Apply well and massage in to all 4 legs, 1-2 weekly. Its a very messy job, and probably best if you can get your horse to stand on a large plastic bag. Wear old clothes. It works very very well on my mare, particularly for very sore, scabby, itchy legs. Apply regularly.
Best of luck with this awful problem.
 
That's brilliant thank you! Does this soothe the legs? His back legs are very sore and scabby around his heels, at first I thought this was mud fever but I'm convinced it's from the mites.. Poor pony is plagued by them!!
Thanks again
 
Dear OP
I would wash legs first and let them dry overnight. It would be better if you could clip the hair off so the oil can get right on the skin. It will grow back quickly. Well all I can say, is that my mare went from weeping, sore scabs from fetlocks to back of knees, and it all cleared in about 1 week. Rub it in gently, and I make sure I NEVER pick scabs off.
This mixture keeps the legs very clean too. Your horse will look like a canary for a day or 2, but the colour soon goes. As I think I said before, reapply after 1 week or 10 days.
I would be very interested to know how you get on.
 
A friend of mine who has shires has the vet inject hers with Dectomax I think. It's for cattle but works like a charm on her horses. Ask your vet about it.
 
I terrible problems with mites and my horse doesn't even have feathers!! It been going on for about 7 weeks now and he has had his 2nd Dectomax injection but he has still got sore heels! Vet thinks they are from foxes and they are the burrowing type!!
 
I have a horse that suffers from mites on a regular basis. Up until this year I have found the Dectomax injections v good, but this year they had a very limited effect. I suspect we have been left with ones that are resistant. A coupe of months ago I started using the Frontline pipettes - 1 large dog size on each leg. Pipettes as I didn't want to clip off his feathers to use the spray. So far so good. I also use pig oil & sulphur every couple of weeks. Be careful though as some horses are sensitive to sulphur, so do a patch test before you use it. Also don't rub your eyes straight after using it, wash your hands first. Similar effect to chillies!
 
I would try the pig oil and sulpher, I buy it off the net, apply with a sponge apply all over and rub into heels ect, sometimes my Pony looks like a greasy chip, but it keeps the midges away and most other flying things, he also gets a weird skin condition now and again at certain times of year which is what I actually got it for, which has helped more than anything else, I also put Kossalian bloods salts in his feed which also seems to help.

He had an itchy tail and was start to rub it on the stable wall, rubbed the stuff well into it and it sorted it straight away.
 
I use the three pronged attack. After combing out the scabs. Frontline, then after that a few days later, baby oil and kill itch (benzyl benzoate). Not at the same but 3 days apart. I get the kill itch and baby oil rubbed right to the skin using the gloves they kindly give away at petrol stations :)

I'm not sure what the sulphur is supposed to do, I think the oil is the important ingredient as it suffocates the buggers.
 
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lazybee said:
I use the three pronged attack. After combing out the scabs. Frontline, then after that a few days later, baby oil and kill itch (benzyl benzoate). Not at the same but 3 days apart. I get the kill itch and baby oil rubbed right to the skin using the gloves they kindly give away at petrol stations :)

I'm not sure what the sulphur is supposed to do, I think the oil is the important ingredient as it suffocates the buggers.
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I agree with this. Ask a friendly high street chemist to order you some Benzyl benzoate biggest bottles and this does soothe it. It is for mites and is used in humans...but its very soothing. I use to leave it on for a couple of days and it will pick up the dirt. I would sometimes hibiscrub before and after treatment but the Benzyl is v good. I never tried the pig stuff but it is often recommended and I would try it. I think its more the oil or anything that is oily i would used udder cream, aqueous etc more to stop any mites clinging to the hair. The thing I always felt important was to keep hair off the ground. Good luck just keep at it. I never tried frontline but hear this is good as well.
 
The problem with Pig Oil is that if it is left on it can cause blistering especially in the sun.

Try Neem Oil. (Google Neem Team) Mix a5 ml Neem oil with 5 ml shampoo and make up with 1 L of hot water and wash the legs with that and do not rinse off.

All biting bugs hate the stuff and it is 100% safe to use.
 
My pony had bad heel mites when I bought her - in both her heels and the back of her knees.

I tried benzol, camrosa (healed the sores but they kept coming back)

She then had the injection from the vet. She needed 3 in total, each 2 weeks apart, but touch wood it seems to have worked.
 
I agree that Dectamax is not as effective as it was when I first started using it 15 years ago. In those days, one single injection would get rid of these chorioptic mange mites for good, but there is obviously resitance to it now. A course of 3 injections 10 days apart has worked very well on a couple of ours recently, and made no differece at all to another. I use an ivermectin oral sheep wormer on his legs, rub it in well, repeat in 10 days. I use pig oil and a bit of sulphur on them all, they are more likely to react to the sulphur than the pig oil, so test a patch first. The tradi cobs have so much more feather than the Shires, who have silky fine feather. The cobs' feather is very thick and dense and it's quite a job working anything into it, I think it's because they are (whispers) common :p Neem oil sounds like it might be worth a go, too. Let us know how you get on.
 
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lazybee said:
I'm not sure what the sulphur is supposed to do, I think the oil is the important ingredient as it suffocates the buggers.
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It's meant to burn off the scabs.

I swear by Dectomax, always sorts out my lad. I'm surprised it hasn't worked if he's not had it before.

I like pig oil and sulphur but I have found the only thing that has totally cleared all scabs and itchiness is Avon Skin so Soft, Fresh. Bath oil one. I've tried for four years to get rid of the scabbiness (itchiness dealt with by Dectomax) and started using the Avon stuff recently, blinking marvellous.
 
Thinking again..the other thing that is very good but it will be expensive is Oilatum. Its used on eczema and you put it in ie warm water and wash down. Derbac is the other human scabies treatment. A lot of these treatments contain oils and its to stop the bugs sticking to the hair and smoothers them. good luck. I am sure you will try anything at the moment. The other thing is to move to a different field. I did this and it was an improvement.
 
Feel for you Kate, the impact of this condition is so often underestimated. I've recently lost my 30 something boy but we had a raging battle with the mites and mud fever syndrome for most of those years (I do believe the skin condition from the mites creates the ideal conditions for MF and the cycle continues). I've tried most of remedies listed and can say that we initially had ok results with Dectomax but not in last few summers. Benzyl workes sometimes and I tried the three prong approach mentioned including pig oil and sulphur, hibiscrub and mud fever crems from vets etc. His condition was chronic when he came to me many years ago but I was too green to understand the corregation in his legs. Best management I found was to be on the case all the time keep feathers clipped and remove all scabs.

I do know what you are going thru its so frustrating to know you cant nail it for them and take away the irritation.

I'm currently looking for another horse (may have found one but setback see other thread) as well as the obvious vices I'm ruling out mud fever, sweet itch etc as far as i can as I dont want to watch another horse live with such a condition.
 
Totally agree with Shivvy re the impact of chorioptic mange. I have bought several horses who were chronic sufferers, some were truly pitiful cases. The long term effects of the constant stamping, rubbing, banging of these previously untreated horses, without doubt shortened their lives.
 
hairycob said:
I also use pig oil & sulphur every couple of weeks. Be careful though as some horses are sensitive to sulphur, so do a patch test before you use it. Also don't rub your eyes straight after using it, wash your hands first. Similar effect to chillies!
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Yes ditto this. I used pig oil & sulphur on my boy; who's got pink skin & white legs, and he came up very pink and hot, poor chappie.

So, yes, be careful if using for first time.

What I tend to do now is to get the pig oil & put a few drops of Neem oil in and then apply.
 
Had my cob three months, came with mites did a patch test on one leg and that leg is still recovering from the sulphur.I then clipped his feathers the sun then affected the leg which had been upset by the sulphur. He had lots of sores from the mites,a month ago my vet put him on ten days of antibiotics to get rid of the infection two sachets a day,I wash his legs every three days with sebolytic shampoo,i soak each leg in a bucket of warm water then massage in the shampoo and leave on for ten minutes,rinse off with cold water, towel dry, and I have then been spraying with the new spray just bought out by horseware called hydrocare. Allow to dry thoroughly over night,and put a frontline large dog pipette on each leg massage in really well into the Pastern area.Leave twenty four hours and rub sudocream into the sores,or zinc and caster baby cream.Touch wood, fingers crossed three legs are very good,the leg that reacted to the sulphur is about seventy five per cent there.Having spent a fortune and lots of stress,this combination seems to be working for us,also I keep his feathers long enough so I cant see his skin but short enough so I can nip anything in the bud quickly.My vet said to me do not underestimate the stress of looking after cobs,and there lower leg skin problems.also you can buy frontline spray,and every five days for a month you thoroughly spray each leg massaging in well into all the creases,this worked just as well for me,but the pipettes are much easier.Just be careful with the sulphur if your horse has particulary sensitive skin, as it really did make a mess of my horses one leg I tried it on.Good luck,my boys legs where a mess,but we are definatley getting there,three legs down one to go.
 
Hi kate.l
I do understand how frustrating and upsetting it is to see your poor horse so distressed kicking, chewing and stamping their feet. I've posted recently about our sucess with our battle against feather mites, so I've found my old post and hope it can be of some use to you.

Basically you name it, I've tried it. Our boy came to us with TERRIBLE feather-mites, really bad, golf ball size scarring and bleeding scabs that had just been left for about 6 years. Problem was he had massive beautiful long thick feather so it was so hard to even see let alone get at it, and we had no idea when we bought him how bad it was (we did get him vetted, and vet mentioned it but we didn't know how hard it would be to try and sort them).

The first year we tried everything - 1/2 dozen Dectomax injections from vet (these only worked for about a week), major pig oil & sulphur regime sent to me by the very helpful Theresa_F (thank you Theresa!) which I ended up buying in bulk in drums!, but the problem was nothing solved it.
I started this thread for suggestions http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forum...d.php?t=502288 and tried most of the suggestions on here, including things like Nettex feather mite powder.

So finally we clipped his feather out - and then we could see how bad things really were and start to get on top of it. We have been following Vet advice (we have a very helpful vet who used to work at Redwings so had seen her share of feather-mite horses).

So here goes...

> Clip feather out (it just means you can see everything, and know treatment is really getting where needed).
> Then Wash each week for 4 weeks with Seleen shampoo (quite expensive, need about 100ml which is 2/3 of the bottle per wash - have since discovered that human shampoo Selsun contains the same active ingredient but even stronger and is cheaper!). You need to wet, lather, leave for 10 mins, then rinse properly.
> Towel dry legs until only damp
> Then put gloves on and rub into damp legs about 8 sprays of Frontline per leg. If horse doesn't like being sprayed then spray onto glove and rub into skin, or just spray straight onto leg but make sure you rub it into the skin with your gloved hands. Buy the big bottle (about £38) from your local cat/dog vets, they had to phone my equine vet to confirm it was ok for me to have it as it's prescription only but much cheaper this way, the bottles look like this:
http://www.animeddirect.co.uk/dogs/f...googleshopping
> Then on the actual existing sores/scabs the vet gave me a steroid cream in an E45 base (as soothing as Sudocrem but actually working to clear it up too), this cream is mostly used for mud fever but works well here, cost about £35 for a huge tub. This can be applied daily as needed. Worth it – really clears up the sores.

> Once all exisiting scabs/sores gone, only wash with the Seleen/Selsun shampoo every couple of months or even only a couple of times a year, if needed.

This treatment works in the following ways:
> The Seleen/Selsun shampoo removes the habit (the scurf) where the mites live, and helps with the itchiness
> The Frontline actually kills the mites
> The vet steroid cream clears up any long-standing sores
End result = one very happy horse (no stamping, chewing, itching at all!)

Sorry this has turned out so long, but we’ve really tried it all, and after nearly 18 months this is the closest we are to a very happy horse, and I hope within a few weeks we should really be there. It's been several months now where he hasn't had a single chew, scratch or stamp - amazing!! We thought we'd never get there.

The plan is to keep him clipped out for another 6 months or year so we can keep a very close eye on it, and see if we can solve it completely. If we can solve it then we will let his feather grow back (and then we will be applying pig oil and sulphur – as I do believe this will work very well as a prevention, but it just wasn’t enough to solve the existing long standing problem we had). If it doesn’t go away completely but we can keep him as happy as he is now with keeping him clipped and just a wash of this shampoo every few months then that’s fine too. I think it's likely that we will always need to keep him clipped so we can see what we're doing, but even if it never goes away completely, this way of managing it means he isn't in any discomfort at all, makes all the effort so worthwhile to see him so happy.

I hope this is helpful! Sorry it's so long :D:D:D
 
Are mite that burrow harder to get rid of? My boy is TB/ID with no feather at all but he is suffering with mites although more from the vets saying it was thrush and having them for 7 weeks!! Frontline didn't do anything for him and the dectomax injection only seemed to last a week, is that normal? His comes up with sores like mud fever but the itching is so low down on his heel that he has chewed away the back of them. He not itching since 2nd injection on Wed but now wondering whether to get third done before 10 days.

Do the mites coming out of the skin cause the sores or is that through the their bites?
 
You could possibly try Diatomaceous Earth powder, (food grade) it kills fleas (bought it for my dogs today, haven't tried it yet) by piercing the skeleton and subsequently killing them. Works the same for mites on chickens. Says on the bottle can be used on horses too. It's not expensive, I bought a product called Diatom from Bio Link, from my local feed store in the poultry division.
 
AdorableAlice said:
Happyned,

Do you mean 2/3 of a bottle of Selsun per limb ?
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Hi AA, no it's 2/3 of a bottle of Selsun for all 4 legs (knee down), I mixed it up in a small bucket (it's mixed to 2 parts warm water) and then used a rubber-gloved hand to rub it in really well and work up the lather. It's really worked, I can't recommend it enough, but the feather needs to be short so you can work it into the skin to remove the scurf thus removing the mites habitat.
I've just bought a 150ml bottle of Selsun from Boots on offer for £5.49, so about 1/2 the price of the vets Seleen shampoo, really good (and it's even cheaper online).
 
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Thanks HappyNeds,


I have a new cob who is very itchy, had 2 jabs and been frontlined, much much better now, but I am keen to do all I can to keep her comfortable in the long term.

Previous owners had her clipped, and she will remain clipped with me. She is touchy around her legs as I am led to believe scabs were clipped through which would have caused a lot of pain for her.

She needs clipping now but I want to gain her trust before doing it. She has rather course, 3 inch long feather on at the minute, which I can wash through and get the frontline through.
 
Deosect shampoo, rinse and dry - twice in a week. Then pig oil and sulphur. The lad has fab feathers - just about to do some showing, god help us.

Hope that helps :)
 
Bobbly said:
You could possibly try Diatomaceous Earth powder, (food grade) it kills fleas (bought it for my dogs today, haven't tried it yet) by piercing the skeleton and subsequently killing them. Works the same for mites on chickens. Says on the bottle can be used on horses too. It's not expensive, I bought a product called Diatom from Bio Link, from my local feed store in the poultry division.
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I tried that too on bedding and legs didn't work for us but interested in other folks experiences.
 
AdorableAlice said:
Thanks HappyNeds,


I have a new cob who is very itchy, had 2 jabs and been frontlined, much much better now, but I am keen to do all I can to keep her comfortable in the long term.

Previous owners had her clipped, and she will remain clipped with me. She is touchy around her legs as I am led to believe scabs were clipped through which would have caused a lot of pain for her.

She needs clipping now but I want to gain her trust before doing it. She has rather course, 3 inch long feather on at the minute, which I can wash through and get the frontline through.
Click to expand...

AA support your call to gain trust as its tough once they have been clipped on sore legs before they came to you. This condition is just so awful
 
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