Feather Mites - What to do?

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My horse has always had scabs on the back of his two front legs, which dont seem to agitate him in anyway. Having done some research, i reckon they are probably feather mites (they last all year round, and he is coloured, with white legs, and although he isnt that cobby he must have some cob in him). If they dont annoy him, is it worth doing something about them, or just keeping an eye out?
 
Firstly don't ignore feather mites as they're a form of mange (sorry can't remember whether its chorioptic or demodectic - someone on here will know for sure) and the condition can drive horses crazy.

There will be all sorts of suggestions coming on here, one of which will be (no doubt!) pig oil & sulphur, BUT whilst it may work for some horses I'd advise extreme caution as it can and does disagree with some horses, especially ones like mine with pink skin & white hair - it brought him up very sore and red. So be careful!

There are all sorts of topical applications, but my vet prescribed three separate doses of ivermectin wormer; given at two-weekly intervals. This did clear the situation up a bit but you have to be careful of using wormers like this coz overloading can mean they don't do the job they're actually meant to do, i.e. kill worms.

Sorry, having re-read your post again, IF the scabs are on the backs of the legs rather than the heels area it might not be feather mites. Feather mites can be seen with the naked eye on the heels/fetlock area; they're like little black bits of small grit basically, but if your problem is higher up the leg, like behind the knee? - then it might be mallenders?? (sorry can't remember the modern name :) - there was always "mallenders" and "fallenders" when I was in Pony Club a good many years ago.

Personally IF the scabs ARE higher up the leg I'd be inclined to wash thoroughly with half a teaspoon of Hibiscrub diluted in a bucket of warm water; then when dry slap on some Sudocreme. You won't do any harm and just might do a lot of good. You need to keep doing this until the scabs loosen and fall off, then dress with Sudocreme until cleared up. Oh and if your horse is cobby with feathers you just MAY need to clip the feathers off in order to get to the area (sorry!!! - know that people with cobs can be precious about feathers!).
 
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If it is feather mites, the only thing I found to work was washing with neat insecticide shampoo (leaving it on for 10 minutes before rinsing off) then covering in pig oil the next morning when dry. I repeated it 10 days later.

My mare had scabs on the back of her fronts and lesions too and stamped the back ones like crazy all the time.
 
My heavily feathered cob shows symptoms of mites in spring and autumn. Does your boy stamp his feet? I'd expect this if it were mites; they tend to stamp their feet hard, scratch their legs with their heads and rub their legs together.

I would expect to see scabs higher up the legs - my mare's worst spots are behind the knees. I tried hibiscrub and sudocrem but nothing topical worked. As your boy isn't feathered some Frontline may sort it.

Alternatively, you can get the vet to give a couple of Dectomax jabs, usually a month apart. It's not officially licenced for horses but contains ivermectin which is used as a wormer, and gets rid of the symptoms almost instantly.

However, I wouldn't do any of this without having a vet look at it first :)
 
We used to use pig oil and sulphate on a shire we had years ago, she used to stamp her feet constantly and this seemed to work well. Also Diatom earth is really good on all lice/mite problems. If not try a drop of frontline in the feathers.
 
^^ Have a chat to your vet but for any type of mite in my chickens (ones I take in are often riddled & need to be right before going in with my others) I have always successfully used frontline kitten spray and then diatom powder. So would probably try this combo if we had to deal with it, but I would still give my vet a call first.
 
I treat with frontline and then keep the pests away with pig oil and sulphur if you want the very long note I do about hairy horses legs, send me a pm with an email address and I will email it to you.
 
I've just had vet out to mine today for possible mites and confirmed so he's on the fortnightly apart ivermectin jabs. He's not been too bad as not heavily feathered and I'm hoping we can nip the little blighters in the bud now. There's one if not 2 other horses on yard which have had it for some time before mine and as far as I know not under veterinary care/treatment for it and I can tell you whatever they do is not clearing it up so I don't think it's that advisable to keep going without proper treatment if you can't clear it up yourself as you run the risk of having it spread to other horses which in a livery yard situation is not great or helpful for other horses or owners due to reinfestation and subsequent cost of treatment.
 
When my cob developed scabs above his hind fetlocks and the backs of his knees (he's had them on the front of his hocks too) we didn't think it was mites as he wasn't stamping or biting. Mites are itchy beasties, think scabies and mange-same sort of thing. Chorioptic I think?

After talking to the vet about it we decided to treat him anyway, just in case.

He was washed with seleen shampoo, then his legs and belly were soaked with ivermectin wash. Important to do the belly too, apparently mites like to hang out up there, then repopulate the legs later on. Nice.

Didn't sort the scabs out, final diagnosis-mallenders (front) and sallanders (hind)
and there is no cure. So, I rub aqueous cream in to the grooves left by the scabs, sudocrem on minor scabs and skincure on the open cracks. It's the only thing I've found that clears it up. I pig oil his legs (sulphur makes his sheath sore:rolleyes:) so it's easier to look through the hair and check him every day. I daren't miss one, they get so bad, so fast and it makes him really sore.
 
Dolly has been suffering with mites for a long time now. She has been under the vet the whole time. She had a few courses of the dectomax injection which worked fine the first few times, but the last couple of times she had it, she was back to foot stamping and chewing her legs in less than a week. Her feathers were all clipped off ages ago, which didnt help. She lives out all summer, so her bedding wasn't an issue. She is now being a guinea pig for my vet. As she is in overnight through winter, she is on rubber mats and woodchips. She is has just started the invermectin wormer course, I have a special shampoo to wash her legs with, and frontline spray. When/if we have got rid of the mites, the vet wants me to put flea collars around her hind pasterns as a preventative measure to stop them coming back. Will see how it goes.

She is one horse who reacted badly to the pig oil and sulphur method.
 
Theresa do you know how quickly they usually show improvement from the jabs? Is it a day or so or does it take a while to get into the bloodstream and dependent on when the mites are hatching and feeding?
 
Dolly showed improvement within a couple of days, but when she had the last course, it didnt last very long at all. That was the dectomax though. She is having the invermectin orally, and is due her 2nd dose today. She does seem to have made an improvement over the last week.
 
Beausmate said:
When my cob developed scabs above his hind fetlocks and the backs of his knees (he's had them on the front of his hocks too) we didn't think it was mites as he wasn't stamping or biting. Mites are itchy beasties, think scabies and mange-same sort of thing. Chorioptic I think?
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My cob has this, and was treated for Chorioptic mange by a vet when on loan and not much happened...my vet agreed that it was mallanders he had rather than mange and I keep on top of it with head and shoulders shampoo for greasy hair (the lemon one?) every few weeks.

Incidentally, he DID have mites a few years ago which was treated with dectomax, and if ONLY he had just been stomping his feet - he was trying to crawl out of his skin! It was awful.

Not always as easy to keep as one might think, these hairies!
 
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