Fleas!!! Help!

[Sillymoose]

My sister got attacked by fleas this morning at the barn near the manure bin :eek:. We’ve traced it back to the horse that just came in a couple of days ago from quarantine. The owner says that there were fleas at quarantine so we assume that the horse picked them up there and brought them to the barn (kind of defeats the purpose of the quarantine but thats a whole 'nother thread :rolleyes:.)

So now the question is what on earth do we do? Quarantine is obviously closed until this is solved but now they’re all over the place. I’ve never dealt with fleas before and I especially don’t know how to deal with them with horses. The vet clinic in charge of the barn and quarantine is going to try and find us something to spray around but since they’ve already dropped the ball more times I can count, I’m not holding my breath.

Is there flea bomb we can use that is safe around horses? Is this something we can deal with or should we just call someone out right away? I do not want this to get out of control. How do you treat a horse with fleas? We know the new one has them and I’m sure they will quickly spread to the other 3 in that row. I’m so freaked out right now. I have no experience with fleas and I want to keep them far away from my horses so any advice or experience would be awesome. Thanks

[bludejavu]

We’ve been battling flea outbreaks for 3 years now. The only thing I’ve found that has really worked is a product made by Bayer with Imidacloprid (sp?) in it which is the same ingredient in Advantage for dogs and cats. Someone mentioned it to me on this board and I tried it. I mix it stronger than is recommended, spray diligently with a hose end sprayer or a pump up sprayer, and continue applying once weekly even after I don’t see any fleas. Keep all small animals treated with a good flea pesticide such as Advantage or Advantix or the cycle will start all over again.

As far as horses getting fleas, they may carry them but none of our horses have them on their bodies, even after the serious outbreaks we’ve had. Our horses seem totally untouched by them.

ETA - here’s the link to the thread I started about our flea problems. Read Horsegal’s post about Imidacloprid. http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=264110

[horsefaerie]

Nematodes. Arbico organics.

[fourmares]

diatomatious earth… I’m pretty sure that horses don’t get fleas. I remember when I was a kid, my trainer used an old horse blanket in his dog’s bed because something in the horse hair kept the fleas away.

[ex-racer_owner]

Nope, I have a known a horse that actually had them. Not sure how she picked them up, but sure enough they were in the white parts of her coat (paint mare). We couldn’t believe it either, as none of us had ever encountered fleas on a horse. I recommended using Dawn shampoo to bathe the horse as it works well on dogs and cats to kill fleas. It cleared up quickly.

I unfortunately don’t have much to recommend in the way of removing fleas from a premises. I would have to second the diatomaceous earth since that is supposed to remove crawling insects exoskeleton and it is a more “natural” approach…

[crosscreeksh]

Pyrethrin 10% - safe to use as a fly spray on horses, dogs and barn/house/carpet areas. It’s the only thing that worked for us this season when our house and yard were infested. Buy it at the farm store and dilute with water as per package instructions.

[Amwrider]

Horses sweat so fleas do not like their skin. Horses and humans and anything else that sweats cannot harbor a flea infestation.

That being said, flea hatchlings will take their first meal on just about anything, but once they have their first meal, they try to find a more suitable host.

Your flea infestation may come from some of the local wildlife instead.

[goeslikestink]

have they got cats at the barn and did the hrose come from a yard with cats
as i had a pony in once that had fleas so treated it with dog/cat flea spray
which of course via groooming and then having a bath the fleas went within a week
never had apony in before with fleas but theres all a 1st for something

are you sure its fleas and not lice , if its lice then they can also get onto the humans so de louse the pony with louse powder which you can buy at any tack shop or vets
in both cases treat it as a contagious thing and do all equipment ie rugs spray or treat with louse powder same to with numnahs and grooming kit brushes etc
brooms wheelbarrows etc disinfect them same with walls of the stables etc
disinfect the floor wait till dry then dust over with louse powder so the pony cant be reinfested

destoyed all bedding in both cases if found with either

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=12&ved=0CFQQFjAL&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theequine.co.uk%2F%3FYour_Horse%26nbsp%3B%26nbsp%3B%26nbsp%3B%26nbsp%3B%26nbsp%3B%26nbsp%3B%26nbsp%3B%3AHorse_Health%3AParasites&rct=j&q=equine%20lice&ei=MoKpTK36INjNjAfBx8HiDA&usg=AFQjCNGacZuUNHJQIlkF0etcEYCMHCgeFA&sig2=T3ynF7a4Q-2ilVjTFGd14A&cad=rja

i would be also looking at the manure site as sounds to close to the stables manure dumps encouage flies and mossy and midges
so in that case sound like you have been attacked by midges rather than fleas as sooome people can get bitten by them etc so advice is to move the dump further away from the stables and to deal with it on a regualr basis as in spred on fields or burn it off
so ask the yard how often it gets moved and can it moved furth away from the stables

look here on how to manage a muck heap
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.equine-world.co.uk%2Farticle_read.asp%3Fid%3D486%26title%3DManaging%2BMuck%2BHeaps%2BEffectively&rct=j&q=equine%20muck%20heaps&ei=kYSpTLvfHdKS4gbwuZjeDQ&usg=AFQjCNFQL6GZswVSYSwZvjrl021RnmeifA&sig2=PmcHDvR7hPlLoWw2McP6sw&cad=rja

[Guilherme]

Freedom45 or Equispot. While not claiming to deal the fleas in the literature of either (that I could find) I did find this:

https://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?articleid=1574

They do not have a specific reference I could find but they do list Equispot as being effective for flea control and Freedom45 and Equispot have the same active ingredient. So if Equispot does work Freedom45 should also.

G.

[alibi_18]

@Guilherme

Freedom45 or Equispot. While not claiming to deal the fleas in the literature of either (that I could find) I did find this:

https://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?articleid=1574

They do not have a specific reference I could find but they do list Equispot as being effective for flea control and Freedom45 and Equispot have the same active ingredient. So if Equispot does work Freedom45 should also.

G.

Always good as a reminder, but I hope the OP got rid of those nasty fleas… 8 years ago!

[Moderator_1]

Closing this thread as is was bumped by now-deleted spam.
Thanks!