Help! Lice are ruining my life!

C

Comanche

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I am looking for some good advice. I rescued some goats in good faith from a rescue centre, but we found out too late that they were riddled with lice. I have 22 horses (many rescued) and some of them caught the awful things. This was in the summer and the horses were all bathed in a good shampoo and it seemed to be the end of it. However, the little pests have reared their ugly heads again. The condition drops off the horses almost overnight! It is ridiculous! Although the horses are well fed, they look shocking. We asked the vet for advice. He could jab the goats, pour on a lotion for the cows we have here, but he could only suggest a powder (permethrine) or shampoo again. Jabs can cause a fatal reaction in horses apparently. Someone else suggested that pour on for cows is effective for horses, but it says not to use it on them on the tin. I used powder, but it didn't work well enough and they are creeping back in. I used a lotion that you have to sponge on, but the coats of the horses are so thick that I am not sure it gets through to the skin. I have taken a chanceon it and bathed the younger, sturdy ponies, but I have several over the age of 25 here that would not be up to a bath in this awful cold. I do not have the luxury of a wet and dry room yet.
I am desperate for advice as these critters are ruining my life. I had to send a loan pony back looking awful due to them and the owners now think that I have abused the pony and not fed it, which is totally untrue!
I have closed my yard until we get to the bottom of this invasion.
I know that some wormers help, but I am loathe to use wormers as a control for lice as I am wary of the problems of resistance.
I tried mixing Neem oil in with aloe vera gel - but this was not enough. Should I bath them anyway in this awful weather?
All help will be gladly received!
 
Hiya, i used the cattle pour on stuff for lice on my two ponies with no ill effects infact its a good fly repellant too, so they had it every 4-6 weeks all summer, my cob even had it dabbed on his belly button!

The other stuff i used to good effect although vet said it wasnt gteat stuff but worked for others was Coopers fly stuff but you need to get that right into the base of the manes and tails for best effect.

and louse powder only seems to repel rather than actually kill.

to be honest i would go to your vet and ask advice on the cattle pour on as, as far as i know it actually kills what ever insecty creature that craws over it... thats how i understand it works anyway.

x
 
Thanks so much. I know they use the pour on in Oz and USA but for some reason we are advised against it in UK. Prolly some strange EU legislation, I imagine.
 
I sympathise I really do, the damn things seem to latch on to anything that's thinner than the rest anyway, and I agree they take condition off in days...
This season has been prefect breeding conditions according to my vet (warm and wet) and I struggled like you, in the end I got pour on cow stuff (I can't think which) and had a day of doing every single horse with the stuff. I did it on my own as C was away and husband was laid up with a smashed heel, I wormed the lot, poured the stuff on their manes to their tails and that stopped it in it's tracks.
I'm not sure if worming them at the same time was perhaps an over kill, but it did work. The eggs live on tree branches, rubbing posts etc so you probably need to be as agressive as I was to make the horses toxic enough to repell them..
Someone else suggested frontline but it's too expensive to do 40 plus with.
I did check with the vet first and he said it should be ok, but anything very thinned skinned may react, nothing here did however.
I keep reading cases where they report the horses were infested with lice as if the owners don't care, and want to say "Well you get rid of the bloody things then, it's not that easy!"
good luck....
grin.gif

ps, you'll need a shower afterwards, it makes your skin creep being so near to the little blighters....
 
Did either you or the vet consider the possibility that there might be an underlying cause to the ponies' loss of condition? It's very easy (speaking from VERY recent upsetting experience) to look at a horse/pony's condition and assume that it is caused by something obvious - in this case lice - and therefore not look any further. If I had a horse/pony that dropped weight suddenly in my care, I would be asking my vet to look internally and start thinking about other possibilities such as bacterial infections. Better safe than sorry, it's easy for these things to go downhill quickly and with awful consequences.
 
Worm with a good Ivermectin wormer and repeat 14 days later to kill any new hatches.

It must be ivermectin though and if in doubt about their weight then go to a higher estimate.
 
i have used a lotion called deosan in the past with great effect. i would think a few cold hours for the horses is better than weeks of biting and itching.
 
You guys have been really helpful, I have spent the rest of the day chucking cow treatment on. Will bear in mind your advice, alphanumeric, and if they don't improve I will call the vet out and get more advice. After I shampooed them last time, it only took a few days for the shine to be back in their coat and their condition to generally improve, so here's hoping!
Will let you know if I get any strange reactions.
 
My vet recommended I use te Lincoln Louse Powder meant for Stables only. It is very effective where other louse powders fail. Deosect by deosan, as suggested, is also very effective, and makes an excellent fly spray during the summer.
 
will only kill sucking and not biting lice so make sure you know which ones you have!
 
deosect, is good, very good, you should be able to buy that in an ag merchants, use as directed and repeat in 10 -14 days.
it is actually illegal for someone other than a vet to sell you cattle treatment for horses....
 
When I got my TB she was covered in lice and had huge patches of hair missing. I washed her in insecticidal dog shampoo once a week for a month, then every two weeks for a couple of months. This was on the vets advice and it really worked - they never came back, the reguar bathing stopped the need to scratch in case it became habbit and her hair grew back really quickly.
 
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