Potential mites

emfen1305

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 December 2015
Messages
1,046
Visit site
I've noticed my cob has started to itch his back legs on the hay boxes now we have put them out in the field and my friend said she thought she saw him stamping the other day. He is fully clipped out although I've let his legs grow back a little bit to give him some protection from when it is really cold. He doesn't seem to have any scabs bar a touch of mallendars behind both knees on his front legs but I am planning on clipping his legs again this weekend to get a closer look. I know the injections are the done thing but are there cheaper options? Any lotions and potions I could try? I've heard about frontline and the dermoline shampoo - is there anything else I should look at? Thanks!
 

Midlifecrisis

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 August 2014
Messages
4,217
Visit site
If he hasn’t been wormed recently and he definitely has mites I’d do injections. Lotions and potions will take longer...potentially end up costing the same as injection and in the winter it’s a slog making sure each leg is treated properly. Add in the cleansing of rugs and stables brushes etc and it can be very time consuming.
 

emfen1305

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 December 2015
Messages
1,046
Visit site
If he hasn’t been wormed recently and he definitely has mites I’d do injections. Lotions and potions will take longer...potentially end up costing the same as injection and in the winter it’s a slog making sure each leg is treated properly. Add in the cleansing of rugs and stables brushes etc and it can be very time consuming.

Thanks he is up to date with worming and the mites not definite as no other symptoms than the little bit of itching he does on the box. I'm just trying some slightly cheaper options to start as I don't really have the money for the injections (January!) and a couple on my yard with hairies have had them and horses still stamping.
 

SEL

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 February 2016
Messages
12,304
Location
Buckinghamshire
Visit site
My big boy is stamping too and I saw him biting his legs today. Gutted because I thought we'd got on top of it with ivermectin shampoo last year, but it looks like the little ******* are back.

I will kick off with frontline and a good soaking of pig oil and sulphur this weekend whilst asking the vet to order me in more of the shampoo. Dectomax injections do nothing for him.

If other horses on the yard have it then I find it a real struggle to shift them.
 

emfen1305

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 December 2015
Messages
1,046
Visit site
My big boy is stamping too and I saw him biting his legs today. Gutted because I thought we'd got on top of it with ivermectin shampoo last year, but it looks like the little ******* are back.

I will kick off with frontline and a good soaking of pig oil and sulphur this weekend whilst asking the vet to order me in more of the shampoo. Dectomax injections do nothing for him.

If other horses on the yard have it then I find it a real struggle to shift them.

Thanks, his next door neighbour (also his fieldmate) has them so there probably will be some sort of cross contamination. He's had the injections and didn't work either - he doesn't stamp has much but he itches a hell of a lot, he has a lot of feather. I am hoping if I clip out bud again and keep on top of his legs with some topical stuff then it might help relieve the symptoms - from what I have read not much seems to completely get rid of them :(
 

Nasicus

Well-Known Member
Joined
15 December 2015
Messages
2,179
Visit site
My cob has been itchy for years, even before I got her. Her legs are to the point where she's got folds and folds of thick, scarred skin on all four legs, chews and itches till she bleeds.
Tried dectomax, lime wash, insecticidal shampoos, powders, flea collars, diatom earth, keeping them clipped bald, nothing at all worked.
Took skin scrapes and they came back clear for mites, so I was at a bit of a loss. She'd just stand there stomping all 4 legs in the field and stable, itching on whatever she could find and failing that would lay down and go nuts on them.

Mentioned it offhandedly to my vet when he came for vaccs and teeth, and he offered to spray her legs with frontline (for free as he had to use the bottle up), and then wrote me up a script for a bottle of Effipro, advised to leave it two weeks, clip the legs again, spray with effipro and then repeat spraying again 2 weeks after that.

Honest to god, I was amazed at the improvement. I was soooo sceptical of it working, but £60 later my girl was comfortable, her legs healed up and noone had to listen to 'thump thump thump' all day, as during the summer of all times, when she suffers the most!

So definitely worth giving it a go if you can get some, it is off license, which does complicate things, but I'll be doing it again next year as a preventative because I am that impressed by it!
 
Top