Hideous fly bites

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poiuytrewq

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My poor gelding always suffers flies and seems to get more than other horses and reacts nastily to bites.
He came home from the other field I rent as it seemed to be worse there for flies and just having no facilities made it harder to clean and treat his skin.
It carried on here but less, he can be stabled during the day here and wears a sweetitch rug over night.
That’s helped and he looks a lot better.
Yesterday though I switched his SI rug to a PE super lite as it was really warm and he hadn’t had a nasty bite for a while- I’d wondered if it was horse flies as the improvement seemed to coincide with them disappearing, until yesterday.
Came in like this;
IMG_2508.jpeg

Cleaned, creamed and put his proper SI back on.
This morning it looked like this;
IMG_2525.jpeg

I’ve bathed the skin is coming off leaving raw patches, they are very itchy. I decided as it was a nice day to actually give him a full bath in anti itch shampoo. Hoping also to cool them.

IMG_2531.jpeg

They are weeping already, flies are loving it so
I’ve put a light scrim cooler over top that I’ll wash overnight for tomorrow (as his rugs are really grim and crusty from it) His SI rug will be clean and dry for tonight.
The next stage, once they dry up and go down is that it will all scab over, go completely bald ( and this is a big patch even by his standards.) it’s going to look awful for ages
Anyone else? What the hell is biting this nastily?!
 

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Not much I can add, but you weren't kidding with the thread title, were you - they are absolutely hideous! Poor love :(
 
It’s so nasty isn’t it. This has been an all summer problem but not usually 3 in one patch.
He also has a few the other side but they are only 50p kind or size and I’m hoping they are just going to go down without getting manky.
I have some citrizine which I think helps with the itch
 
My mare came up in the same welts yesterday within the 2 hours between me feeding her and finishing my other jobs on the yard none of the the others effected, so she went back in her fly rug and is on antihistamines, luckily lumpy is decidedly less lumpy today and happier.
 
I had an allergic reaction to the cream i put on mosquito bite. Came up looking like that. Have to use antihistamine tablets. Can you give them to horses?
 
It might be a worse reaction when some horseflies get a long proper bite and feeding session because it’s an area the horse can’t flick them off. Especially if a horse fly got under a fly rug, which they’re gymnastic enough to do…the b*ggers!

The yellow weeping serum is what I get from inflamed horsefly bites specifically. They can weep a lot.

My horses at the beginning of the season will welt to horsefly bites but generally after that the hive reactions are minimal to the bites, if at all. To have a weeping bite that size suggests the fly got a really good bite on.
We get the giant horseflies here too (size of large wasps, have yellow and black colouring, rather than the smaller common grey horseflies) and those my horses are particularly wary of, and will canter off into the distance when one is flying around them!
Your boy may have had a giant horsefly bite him, given the very inflamed reaction.

It’s tricky to rug for horseflies as it’s in their biting behaviour nature to fly underneath their target, looking for hot thin belly flesh as preference. They’re attracted to heat - thermal vision - hence why horsefly traps have a huge white umbrella-type design with a black ball swinging underneath (google horsefly traps and you’ll see images of this design usually used on farms).
So a horse in a white fly rug with a dark belly showing underneath can potentially attract them, and there’s the potential for the fly to fly up and in between rug and skin, managing to bite several times, as it looks like your guy had, with those 3 bites close together.

I’ve always been in a quandary rugging for horseflies due to their biting behaviour flying under and up. There’s bushes and trees in my fields the horses use to brush against, so I know they’d wreck fly rugs instantly too catching on them. I stick with sprays and the horses using the bushes to get rid of flies in areas their tails or mouths can’t reach.

The fly rugs that wrap around the belly might be more successful as a deterrent to horseflies. Preventing them getting inside the rug. But I do wonder if some of the larger or even desperately hungry horseflies are able to just land on fly rugs and bite through, as its thin material. They bite me through t shirt and cotton thin trousers material when I’m out in the fields. Even hand gloves when strimming they’ve landed on top and bitten through the thicker rubbery poly material!
Truly, horseflies are the worst. Theyre so bloody clever too, coming up from behind, and when I spin around to get it, it flies behind me again.

Within a week your guy should be a lot better healed. The crusty serum does dry to prevent it being an open sore wound, which is natures way to help seal it while it de-inflames. Fingers crossed the horsefly season is ending and they bloody disappear!!
 
PurBee said:
It might be a worse reaction when some horseflies get a long proper bite and feeding session because it’s an area the horse can’t flick them off. Especially if a horse fly got under a fly rug, which they’re gymnastic enough to do…the b*ggers!

The yellow weeping serum is what I get from inflamed horsefly bites specifically. They can weep a lot.

My horses at the beginning of the season will welt to horsefly bites but generally after that the hive reactions are minimal to the bites, if at all. To have a weeping bite that size suggests the fly got a really good bite on.
We get the giant horseflies here too (size of large wasps, have yellow and black colouring, rather than the smaller common grey horseflies) and those my horses are particularly wary of, and will canter off into the distance when one is flying around them!
Your boy may have had a giant horsefly bite him, given the very inflamed reaction.

It’s tricky to rug for horseflies as it’s in their biting behaviour nature to fly underneath their target, looking for hot thin belly flesh as preference. They’re attracted to heat - thermal vision - hence why horsefly traps have a huge white umbrella-type design with a black ball swinging underneath (google horsefly traps and you’ll see images of this design usually used on farms).
So a horse in a white fly rug with a dark belly showing underneath can potentially attract them, and there’s the potential for the fly to fly up and in between rug and skin, managing to bite several times, as it looks like your guy had, with those 3 bites close together.

I’ve always been in a quandary rugging for horseflies due to their biting behaviour flying under and up. There’s bushes and trees in my fields the horses use to brush against, so I know they’d wreck fly rugs instantly too catching on them. I stick with sprays and the horses using the bushes to get rid of flies in areas their tails or mouths can’t reach.

The fly rugs that wrap around the belly might be more successful as a deterrent to horseflies. Preventing them getting inside the rug. But I do wonder if some of the larger or even desperately hungry horseflies are able to just land on fly rugs and bite through, as its thin material. They bite me through t shirt and cotton thin trousers material when I’m out in the fields. Even hand gloves when strimming they’ve landed on top and bitten through the thicker rubbery poly material!
Truly, horseflies are the worst. Theyre so bloody clever too, coming up from behind, and when I spin around to get it, it flies behind me again.

Within a week your guy should be a lot better healed. The crusty serum does dry to prevent it being an open sore wound, which is natures way to help seal it while it de-inflames. Fingers crossed the horsefly season is ending and they bloody disappear!!
Click to expand...
When horse flies get going, we’ve found Boetts pretty good, plus spraying light oil over exposed bits.
I know they can bite through fabric, but seems to mostly deter them, they go for cows instead.
Not come across any insects that like landing and biting when oily, altho any fine oil spray does need repeating.
I’d recommend Boetts or De Meulenkamps anytime for sweet itch, too, which are luckily not dealing with atm!
 
Oh poor lad, and poor you having to deal with this as an ongoing problem 😞

When I've had an inflammatory itch from insect bite reactions myself I find applying ice to it helps take the heat out and often gives relief from the itching for several hours afterwards. Honestly the relief is amazing!

Should I ever be unlucky enough to have to deal with a very itchy horse I will be applying an ice pack to see if that helps! If anyone does decide to try this themselves 1) don't overdo the icing and cause damage (wrap the ice pack in something) and 2) let me know if it works!
 
My boys get bites just like these. Never had them like this on any other horse. I assume he is allergic to the nasty little critters! They seem to take ages to go down and heal, however they don't seem to itch my boy. As soon as i spot one i give him 14 Citrizine which seems to stop them coming up any worse. I have owned this horse for 17 years and haven't really found a solution I'm afraid. My boy seems to be best protected by his Aussie allrounder. Whatever is biting him just bites though a fly rug!

I have the added problem that my boy is also allergic to most fly sprays!

I feel your pain and my pony sympathies with yours!!!
 
Exasperated said:
When horse flies get going, we’ve found Boetts pretty good, plus spraying light oil over exposed bits.
I know they can bite through fabric, but seems to mostly deter them, they go for cows instead.
Not come across any insects that like landing and biting when oily, altho any fine oil spray does need repeating.
I’d recommend Boetts or De Meulenkamps anytime for sweet itch, too, which are luckily not dealing with atm!
Click to expand...
Thanks, I’ve never tried Boetts so will keep an eye out. Regular spraying seems to be the way as many of them don’t last. I use an oily one too which lasts longer than water based ones.
I made a garlic juice spray to try this year, just out of curiosity if the myth it deters vampires was true…..and the horseflies seemed somewhat deterred, they hovered, and landed but didn’t bite, and took off - but the horses evidently hated to smell of it as they both rolled in as much mud as they could find that day and came in covered head to toe!
 
I’ve not seen a horse fly for weeks I thought it was that but they are gone now round here.
I get the theory of them getting stuck under rugs but honestly I couldn’t turn this lad out without a fly sheet. He’d be like this all over and won’t settle in the field. I see him just going nuts and hassling the ponies trying desperately to rub on them.
He never gets them with a sweetitch rug but then gets so hot that I make the stupid mistake of a normal fly rug.
He’s very settled and will stand and eat hay as long as he is covered.
It’s just awful.
I think I need to stop lean from this that he can only wear a thick SI rug and being a bit sweaty in the long run is the lesser evil almost.
Annoyingly he also can’t handle strong fly repellants. He’s the one I posted about who has a terrible reaction to stuff like deosect.
I almost look forward to autumn.
 
poiuytrewq said:
My poor gelding always suffers flies and seems to get more than other horses and reacts nastily to bites.
He came home from the other field I rent as it seemed to be worse there for flies and just having no facilities made it harder to clean and treat his skin.
It carried on here but less, he can be stabled during the day here and wears a sweetitch rug over night.
That’s helped and he looks a lot better.
Yesterday though I switched his SI rug to a PE super lite as it was really warm and he hadn’t had a nasty bite for a while- I’d wondered if it was horse flies as the improvement seemed to coincide with them disappearing, until yesterday.
Came in like this;
View attachment 165072

Cleaned, creamed and put his proper SI back on.
This morning it looked like this;
View attachment 165073

I’ve bathed the skin is coming off leaving raw patches, they are very itchy. I decided as it was a nice day to actually give him a full bath in anti itch shampoo. Hoping also to cool them.

View attachment 165075

They are weeping already, flies are loving it so
I’ve put a light scrim cooler over top that I’ll wash overnight for tomorrow (as his rugs are really grim and crusty from it) His SI rug will be clean and dry for tonight.
The next stage, once they dry up and go down is that it will all scab over, go completely bald ( and this is a big patch even by his standards.) it’s going to look awful for ages
Anyone else? What the hell is biting this nastily?!
Click to expand...
It’s a bit late to start now but my horse, 16.2hh, reacts badlly to fly bites. I start him on 15 antihistamine daily ( just google citirizine for cheapest) early March & continue until end September depending on weather. It’s been a life saver for him. He also wears a fly rug & full face mask.
 
spotty_pony2 said:
Bless him! Have you given him any antihistamines? My boy has been having 15 certrizine morning and evening when it’s really bad…

Also, I’d cold hose if you can to help to take the inflammation away.
Click to expand...
Yes to both. :(
He did seem to enjoy the hosing today. Luckily the nasty stage doesn’t last long. He will look bald and nasty for ages but the irritation is fairly short lived.
 
My old boy reacts very badly to fly bites; they start his asthma off. Seeing the external reaction in your horse has made me realise that this can be happening internally. As soon as we start summer turnout, Old Dobbin wears a full neck zebra print rug with a belly cover, head mask and ear cover. He also has antihistamine daily. Piriton doesn't do anything for him, but I have had good success with loratadine. This is the second summer using loratadine, and barely any coughing. Vicks vapour rub seems to deter the small biting black flies, so I am going to try and make a sprayable version of the main ingredients.
 
My vet was out on Monday and I did run it past her, She agree's its a proper allergic reaction to something. In this case I don't think wasp or anything really nasty as he gets them too often (although this was by far the worst, it was 3 in one go) She said Injectable steroid would maybe help but as its all over and done with so fast and he seems unbothered by it, he loves havig them washed and cleaned/hosed but won't make an effort to scratch himsef where ever they happen to be I think I'd rather avoid the cost and just accept it will be gone within 2 days anyway.
She did say allergies like this often get worse they more exposure so I will continue with the SI rugs rather than switching to normal fly sheets in hot weather. He can continue being stabled in the day etc. I also buy a spot on from the vets so will use that more often on him.
@Highmilagecob I agree very much. Breathing and skin allergies are very relatable, also stress will set off asthma symptoms- not saying your cob is stressed but maybe that initial bite pain stress wouldnt be helping. I had one with skin and breathing problems and he had oral steroids but we were incredibly lucky that he was able to tolorate them and not get really laminitic. They are also very expensive.
The Vicks thing is interesting! Let me know how that go's?
 
Stress is definitely a factor. Mainly new introductions to the herd who roll up with stressy behaviour, running round and kicking etc.. At rising 31 he is finally learning not to join in, although maybe that in itself is stress producing, when the entire herd is roaring up and down the field?
 
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