Anyone else having fly spray related eye issues?

[ecileh]

Over the course of this summer and fall, there have been five horses at my barn who developed mysteriously swollen eyes (including one of mine last night) and the running theory by the vets is that it’s due to them getting fly pray in their eyes from rubbing their face on their legs. When I spoke to my vet last night he said he thinks the flay spray manufacturers might have replaced an ingredient due to supply chain issues related to the pandemic, so I thought I’d ask on a national/international community if any other barns have seen this issue recently.

All of the swellings (including the one on my horse) resolved within hours after a good saline flushing, some banamine, and an antibiotic eye ointment for good measure.

His theory makes sense to me as a possibility, but I feel like if this were truly a fly spray issue, I would have heard about it happening in other barns both locally and not. The horses at my farm are both stalled and not (some lived outside when this happened–the rest get daily turnout). There are no new weeds in the pastures/paddocks, no new types of shavings in the stalls…hay is from the same source we have been using for decades…the only real common denominator seems to be Bronco brand fly spray, which is what most of the boarders use as the brand put out for barn help to use when spraying horses for turnout (we all keep our “good” fly spray hidden in tack trunks).

My mare spent most of the summer on stall rest and has only just started to get turn out again, so hasn’t been being fly sprayed until last week.

Any thoughts?

[cnd8]

I havent had any issues with the 3 brands I tried this summer. I spray into my palm and wipe directly over each eye also.
Smartpak’s Outsmart, Pyrhana’s yellow and blue bottles, and now the UltraShield.

[endlessclimb]

I did with my old gelding this year. I use Ultrashield. It would get better, then worse, then better, then worse. Finally resolved in a week or so.

Horse gets minimal fly spray though - he wears shoofly leggin’s and a fly sheet.

[candyappy]

I would think it is more likely that there is something in the air ( allergy wise) that is causing the irritation, which leads to the rubbing, itching , swollen eyes. I really don’t think fly spray lasts that long once you put it on. Are they putting it on around the face or eye area? Are the horses in fly masks?

[SusanO]

I did early this summer that I think was related to Ecovet flyspray. My theory was that she rubbed her face on her leg and got it around her eye. I did not spray that stuff around her face - only on her body and legs. The eyeball looked fine but the lower lid was really swollen for a few days. I quit using it and no repeats. I do have a problem with gnats here but she rarely ventures out of her stall ( and the fan) in the daylight. But it could have been a coincidence. I do not use the Ecovet on her anymore and rarely on the other horses now.

[ecileh]

@candyappy

I would think it is more likely that there is something in the air ( allergy wise) that is causing the irritation, which leads to the rubbing, itching , swollen eyes. I really don’t think fly spray lasts that long once you put it on. Are they putting it on around the face or eye area? Are the horses in fly masks?

They do not spray the face, no. The theory is that the horses are rubbing their faces on their legs (which do get sprayed) to scratch and getting it in their eyes. My horse does not wear a fly mask, but some (not all) of the others who were affected do.

It occurred to me last night while I was disinfecting the latch on my horse’s door that we HAVE been spraying a lot of lysol around the place this summer and that could certainly be an eye-irritant, but the horses themselves do not get sprayed with it (obviously) and the areas that do are things like door latches, cross-ties, broom handles, etc. I would also expect that my horse would have manifested the reaction earlier if it were the lysol, as she has been inside on stall rest all summer while the rest have been going out or living out.

This incident with her occurred on the second day of her turnout–which was the first that they used fly spray on her.

Anyway. Not really seeking a diagnosis here–just wondering if others were seeing the same sort of reaction to fly spray this year. It seemed to me that if this truly were a change in the formula issue, it would be more widespread than just at my farm.