I was lucky to have a relatively tick free summer, but I just found three ticks on one of my horses… the weirdest part is that the ticks were all dead. Two had not even started ‘filling up’ before dying, and the third had gotten a little bit of blood but not much. I am certain they were dead before I pulled them, and they were definitely dead once pulled since they did not move. They are in a baggie right now. Two definitely have their heads, the third is so small I can’t tell. One i think is a deer tick but I don’t know what the others are.
What would cause this? Anyone seen this before?
Are you still fly spraying? That would do it.
1 Like
I’ll bet a dime to a dollar you’ve wormed with ivermectin in the past ~6 weeks, or moxidectin in the past 2 or 3 months. 
2 Likes
No to fly spray, we haven’t had flies in weeks. And I immediately thought ivermectin too, but I haven’t done my fall fecal and deworming yet. It is possible I did moxidection in the summer though… I will have to check. Would it really be that strong still?
Have I discovered the cure to ticks? Haha
Moxidectin is awesome stuff, and extremely effective against ticks, mites, and other external parasites. It gets stored in the fat, so even 4 months after treatment it’s still up to 95% effective (against most but not all the parasites it affects). The efficacy decreases after the 4th month, but it wouldn’t be at all crazy to assume it could still have some effect 5, 6, or maybe even 7 months after dosing. I love the stuff (when used appropriately of course).
I had to give my “parasite princess” a dose a couple weeks ago (it’s totally true 20% of the horses have 80% of the worms. I’m not sure how he manages it, but my special snowflake OTTB “Simon” is technically only counts as 5% of my horses and yet I’m positive he gets 230% of the worms… I assume some lack of natural resistance due to his pampered racing upbringing) and afew days ago I was cleaning his sheath. I saw a big fat blood-filled mosquito on his butt, but… you know… my hands were kinda… preoccupied. It was still there when I finished, dead, sucker still in and about to pop. Anything that makes less mosquitoes and ticks in the world is good in my book.
I noticed something similar in one of my horses. I put Freedom45 tick treatment on him about a week ago and had dewormed with Ivermectin a week before that (so 2 weeks ago). I’ve not seen ticks on him all year, but he’s had a couple of bites where I couldn’t see a tick but it was a similar look to a tick bite he did have a few years ago where I found the live tick and removed it.
I thought if you put the 2 week tick treatment on the horse, ticks wouldn’t even want to attach? Or do they attach, try to bite the horse and then die after exposure to whatever is in the stuff?
Yes, but. Sometimes the ticks just die. I’ve pulled dead ticks off my dog and my horse when there has been no intervention to cause the tick to die (no tick collar, no spray, no de-worming, etc.).
I don’t think it’s that uncommon to find a dead tick on an animal.
I used equimax, so ivermectin/praziquantel. Still no idea what would cause three ticks of separate types to die… but I will remember that about moxidectin!
