Feeding Fresh Garlic Cloves?

[LucyGoose]

So I’ve done some searching in the forums about garlic for fly control, but haven’t found any mention of feeding fresh garlic over buying the dried flakes (such as the ones from Hilton Herbs) or other supplements. Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences about this?

I’m mostly looking to save money while I experiment with things that may help my new horse. He’s a thin skinned OTTB, off the track just over a month, and seems to be allergic to fly spray. About a week ago he broke out in hives, my vet put him on dex, and has been weaned mostly off of it. Friday night, I turned him out, didn’t fly spray, no hives Saturday morning. Saturday night, my friend turned out for me and fly sprayed, worse hives than before all over body Sunday morning. So this is what leads me to believe that it may be due to the fly spray…but I’m not certain. Back to my original story, until I can fully figure out the hives, I’m looking for other ways to help control the bugs!

[Simkie]

I’d go with a fly sheet, personally. You’d have to feed quite a lot of fresh garlic (will he even eat it?) and you risk Heinz body anemia. I’d rather have hives!

[OkLurchers]

I’ve been feeding the powdered garlic supplement from Springtime for almost 20 years. I still use fly spray on my horses and premise spray in their stalls (while they’re turned out) and used fly predators as well the last couple of years. I think the garlic helps but fly spray is still necessary in my area. Maybe you can try different types of fly spray in case there’s one that won’t cause hives. Maybe a citronella base, since it’s natural as opposed to harsher chemicals.

[goodhors]

You might want to read about garlic leaching minerals out of horse body, with regular garlic feeding.

Sorry, I don’t feed garlic, would not be feeding garlic in any form, after reading those articles about mineral leaching. From what we have observed on other folks’ horses, garlic doesn’t really help. Not worth the risk of mineral depletion in their body system. And yes, those folks were supposedly also feeding supplements while feeding the garlic.

Vinegar is also supposed to help horse with flies, again is hearsay, but I have not heard anything bad about feeding it.

Bugs are getting vicious here, green heads in numbers, giant housefly looking ones, and a friend killed a Bomber on Friday so they are coming. I can kill 20-30 while haltering horses to bring inside each morning. We stall the horses during daylight hours, let them out at night with the mosquitos. They don’t run from the mosquitos like they do the flies.

[Ghazzu]

@goodhors;8255662

You might want to read about garlic leaching minerals out of horse body, with regular garlic feeding.

That’s a new one on me–got a link with information?

[ThegoodLife]

Why not just use a fly sheet?

[goodhors]

Ghazzu, here is the interesting part from an article about feeding Garlic to horses. I should not have said leaching of minerals, wrong terms. Rather Garlic causes the depletion of red blood cells resulting in anemia. I had Bran (which does leach minerals) and Garlic confused in my thinking until I looked information up for you. I knew Garlic was not good for horses, just said it wrong.

Quote-
However feed with care as it is being discovered that there are dangers in feeding too much garlic as it can can cause anemia in horses.

There is a toxic element in Garlic called N-propyl disulfide which can change an enzyme within a horse’s red blood cells, it depletes the cell of a chemical known as phosphate dehydrogenase - whose task is to protect the blood cells from damage caused by oxidation

When the level of phosphate dehydrogenase gets too low the hemoglobin in the blood cell oxidizes and forms a bubble. This is seen as being deformed as it passes through the spleen and is removed from the bloodstream. If the blood is consistently poisoned by N-propyl disulfide contained in a garlic supplement more red blood cells are removed and the horse may slowly become anaemic.

Researchers fed a healthy horse 1 lb of onion tops, which also contain N-propyl disulfide, over an 11 day period. By the 11th day the horse had lost almost 60% of his red blood cells and was severely anaemic!

Some vets claim that the toxic effects of garlic are gradual - a low dose fed on a regular basis can result in mild anemia.-Quote

The various information I have read says similar things in regard to how garlic adversely affects horses, so I only gave one link. Here is the link to the entire article, with the bad stuff towards the bottom. Interesting because the first part is supporting the feeding of garlic!!

http://www.equi-therapy.net/equi-therapy/herbal/garlic-horses.shtml

[Ghazzu]

I’m well aware of the mild risk of Hienz body anemia with members of the genus Allium.

It does take significant quantities in most horses. A few will develop anemia on a “regular” dose, however.

I find that it does little to repel flies, IME, but I simply advise a CBC before starting chronic feeding of garlic, and a repeat CBC if the horse appears to show signs which might be attributable to anemia.

[LucyGoose]

Thanks for the input, it seems that feeding garlic may not be worth it…just wanted some other opinions about it.
My guy has less hives today, benedryl is helping. I’m also thinking he could just be extra sensitive right now with all the recent changes.

[buck22]

I have good luck with Animed’s Buglyte. Its garlic based. The horses eat it readily, and one of my boys is fairly picky.

Its inexpensive and fairly effective where I live. It requires a 30 day loading dose of 2x the amount imhe to start working, and if you already have an established colony of flies, it may be too late in the season to see noticeable results. I begin my horses on the product in March. I still have flies, and set out traps, but they don’t seem to bother the horses nearly as much. I don’t need to fly spray often.

http://www.horse.com/item/animed-buglyte/SLT900180/

This late in the year, a fly sheet may be your best option.