I have a broodmare who is due in August and she is getting attacked by ticks in her 24/7 turnout field. The field is well maintained but it does border the woods. She has been having some minor skin reactions to the ticks and I was wondering if equi-spot would be safe for her to use? I have already placed a call into the vet’s office, but I am waiting on a response. I have never used it before but I have heard good things about it in regards to keeping away ticks.
Equispot does work very well. I haven’t found any ticks on my horse when I’ve used it. The one time I did was immediately after the first application (the next day) were I found a tick that had tried to crawl up my horse’s leg but it died on the way up apparently. It hadn’t attached thankfully.
In all honesty, I’d wait for the vet’s comments. Or consider calling the company and asking them. In the meantime, I’d just recommend doing a thorough tick check which it sounds like you are already doing.
I wouldn’t risk it, especially if you haven’t used it on her before. that stuff is strong, I’ve seen some horses have significant reactions to it (looked like a chemical burn).
It does work though!
Equispot is concentrated permethrin - some horses get skin reactions to the high concentration.
You can also just buy a fly spray with a lower concentration of permethrin, or do like I do, and buy 10% concentrate and add a bit to whatever spray you are using now.
Do ask your vet - but going with a 10% or less might be safer than the 45% in EquiSpot
