mites! advice please

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Maybe?

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A horse I look after has been diagnosed as having mites by the vet by skin scraping. They are affecting both his legs and belly/sides. We are really struggling to be rid (or at least have them under control)

So far he has had 2 x dectomax injections 2 weeks apart, has been bathed in dermoline insecticidal shampoo once and has been treated with deosect twice. despite all of this he has shown no improvement.

During all of this he's been on a low sugar diet, clipped out and treated like a sweet itch pony just in case with a rug, micronised linseed, pro balance mineral supp and brewers yeast.. We're a bit lost as to what to try next. Vet says there's a steroid injection that will help him stop itching for a short period of time but won't cure the mites.. Was just curious if anyone has any management tips or knows of anything else we can try (getting pretty desperate now!)
 
Nope, I've tried everything u mention and more and have never been able to get rid. There's a support group on Facebook with loads more ideas and you can keep trying them until you find something that works. It's really frustrating.
 
Is he stabled at all? They live in the rugs, bedding etc so you need a clean slate there. Are you on livery? Mites are so common that there's a chance something else has them (without being too bothered by them) and is reinfesting him. Buying a 2nd horse and finding a yard with pairs turnout might help, but is probably a little drastic as a solution.

What's the grass like in his field? Insects of all varieties seem to love longer grass and my sweet itcher does better on poor (verging on starvation paddock) grazing, due to their being nothing much living in the grass to nibble on him.

ETA: The steroid injection might not be a bad idea. Damaged skin that's healing itches, making the horse rub it, damage it, it gets inflamed and so it itches some more. Stopping the itching can really help break that part of the cycle. A friends horse with mites was told by her vet that you don't cure it you manage it, so to find something that helps keep them at bay and use it every couple of months. No idea whether her vet was being particularly negative or just realistic.
 
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PoppyAnderson said:
Nope, I've tried everything u mention and more and have never been able to get rid. There's a support group on Facebook with loads more ideas and you can keep trying them until you find something that works. It's really frustrating.
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Thank you, that's depressing to hear. May I have the name of the group please?
 
Sugar_and_Spice said:
Is he stabled at all? They live in the rugs, bedding etc so you need a clean slate there. Are you on livery? Mites are so common that there's a chance something else has them (without being too bothered by them) and is reinfesting him. Buying a 2nd horse and finding a yard with pairs turnout might help, but is probably a little drastic as a solution.

What's the grass like in his field? Insects of all varieties seem to love longer grass and my sweet itcher does better on poor (verging on starvation paddock) grazing, due to their being nothing much living in the grass to nibble on him.
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Thanks, he's not stabled at all and lives on short grazing at his owner's home with a shetland (who's receiving the same treatment minus the injections as he hasn't actually shown any symptoms) so I'm hopeful that's not the case but definitely something to consider. Would a good hot wash kill any creepy crawlies that might be living in his sweet itch rug or do I need to treat it properly? :)
 
Maybe? said:
Thanks, he's not stabled at all and lives on short grazing at his owner's home with a shetland (who's receiving the same treatment minus the injections as he hasn't actually shown any symptoms) so I'm hopeful that's not the case but definitely something to consider. Would a good hot wash kill any creepy crawlies that might be living in his sweet itch rug or do I need to treat it properly? :)
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I don't actually know. The advice my friend was given for the bedding was to remove it and burn it, then disinfect the stable thoroughly. Perhaps you could hot wash the rug then run it through on a cooler wash using the insecticidal shampoo? I'm thinking in case the heat makes the insecticidal shampoo not work, otherwise you could just put the shampoo in the hot wash, the manufacturers might be able to advise about that.

Be positive that's useful info, I actually thought mites just lived in the environment generally, as in they were everywhere. If the OP's horses were moved to a new field would the mites just die off do you know? Or would the field they'd been in have to be treated?
 
I had to move yards to get on top of my draft's mite problem! That wasn't the reason we moved but it was a nice discovery. I think the long grass and straw beds at my last yard were just hibernating them and we never managed to get on top of it. Since moving we've been on completely different grass, he's only out with my other horse and there's no bedding down in the stables until winter - when he'll go onto woodchip instead of straw.

You need to wash that sweet itch rug because it will just be reinfecting the horse (mine went away to be done properly). Steroid injections (if there is no risk of lami) might get on top of the itching, but also ask whether you can give something like piriton. I found it stopped the itch long enough for me to try and find stuff to help the horse. NAF does anti-itch lotions which I slathered everywhere. I used the mud fever one on his legs and (he has feathers) also tied dog flea collars to each leg.

Sadly it takes a while and you just need to keep going with the shampoo and the deosect.
 
Sugar_and_Spice said:
I don't actually know. The advice my friend was given for the bedding was to remove it and burn it, then disinfect the stable thoroughly. Perhaps you could hot wash the rug then run it through on a cooler wash using the insecticidal shampoo? I'm thinking in case the heat makes the insecticidal shampoo not work, otherwise you could just put the shampoo in the hot wash, the manufacturers might be able to advise about that.

Be positive that's useful info, I actually thought mites just lived in the environment generally, as in they were everywhere. If the OP's horses were moved to a new field would the mites just die off do you know? Or would the field they'd been in have to be treated?
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They certainly do not live everywhere and were pretty much unheard of until the recent increase in horses of the feathered variety, I think they will die off if they have no host, scrolling down the info I linked to suggests a 3 week cycle but possibly 69 days before they die off, that is hoping that they are not being brought in by other means, moving them would help if you are struggling to get control by other means.
 
Ah great thank you everyone lots to read up on! He was actually moved originally when he had the injections but is due to move in to a new field pretty shortly so I'll see if I can hurry that along.

be positive said:
Has he been moved to a fresh field, the mites will still be around from wherever he picked them up so he needs to be moved to break the chain otherwise he will just keeping picking up more.

I haven't read this fully but it gives some good info and ideas that you may not have tried yet.

http://www.gypsycobsforsale.com/treating-feather-mites/
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You have my sympathy - mine is only mildly symptomatic and that's bad enough. I wash her feathers (left on completely) with the medicated head and shoulders shampoo (more expensive than normal varieties but cheaper than horse stuff), make sure I get rid of dead skin etc and then apply a good dose of frontline to each leg (when slightly damp). Once dry I apply baby oil to feathers and then a tiny bit of pig oil with sulphur. I have to repeat once a quarter but it does work. Each time I treat, stable is disinfected and I move her to a different field.
 
Frontline spray. It's a lot cheaper to pay for a prescription and buy it online than buy it from the vet's.
 
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