My little donk actually has open sores on his legs from flies. I can’t stay home and spray him every hour! Any ideas? I cannot keep a fly mask on him so I have no hope for fly boots as they are worthless unless the animal is tied up. It is too hot to keep him in the barn right now. Any brilliant ideas are very welcome! I love my donk and he is miserable…
I know of some folks with the same problem and they use a product called War Paint.
[QUOTE=howardh;5030866]
My little donk actually has open sores on his legs from flies. I can’t stay home and spray him every hour! Any ideas? I cannot keep a fly mask on him so I have no hope for fly boots as they are worthless unless the animal is tied up. It is too hot to keep him in the barn right now. Any brilliant ideas are very welcome! I love my donk and he is miserable…:([/QUOTE]
stop using water based products…they have no effect on donkeys whatsoever…(mine is 31 this year and we have been together 30 years;))
for big open bleeding sores use Swat til they heal.Vaseline can actually do in a pinch…niggly little bloody spots can be covered in Wipe oil based…I use a purposed hand towel and keep it in a plastic bag and add more Wipe at each application to the towel in the bag…the bag keeps it from drying out.
Jack gets one pass over his legs,ears and face every other day now at shedding season.once his coat starts to regrow in Sept the drama is over.ymmv
Tamara in TN
I’ve got a white donkey and a mini mule and the flies would make them bloody raw no matter what spray I used. Garlic is the only thing that works for mine.
Tried war paint, it only lasts a few hours, same as wipe. What garlic did you use that worked?
I believe you have to feed them the garlic (powder) I have a friend who says that is the only thing that kept the flies off her donkeys and mini donkeys. Not sure why donkeys are so much more susceptible to flies and their bites…
I use Springtime, Inc. I only use maybe a tablespoon 2x/daily for the donkey (standard size) and a little less for the mini mule. When I got the donkey last year he was raw and within days the hair was starting to grow in. I tried fly wraps and thought he was going kick my head in. He had a fly wrap flopping around his ankle for 2 days until he finally let me take the last of it off - yet he stands perfectly for vet & farrier.
I also tried feed-through for 2-3 months and it didn’t do squat for him.
[QUOTE=Belleaphant;5031291]
http://www.jakesflypants.com/ … :)[/QUOTE]
I have to say that I’ve never, ever seen anything quite like that except in cartoons. Do they actually worK? What about the heat? Wouldn’t your horse roast in those? Are they safe for turn out? I can see my neighbors looking over the fence at my horses wearing these things and thinking that I’ve finally gone around the bend.
I have had great performance out of Endure by Farnam. The stuff works on my donkey and my horses. I wipe it around his eyes and ears and face and spray the rest of him. It lasts at least 24 hours.
[QUOTE=equinelaundry;5031216]
I also tried feed-through for 2-3 months and it didn’t do squat for him.[/QUOTE]
The feed through fly controls don’t keep the flies off the animal…they make their manure un-palatable for fly breeding, they do nothing to keep flies from finding your horse or donkey and bothering him. In order for feed throughs to be anywhere near effective they must be fed to all animals on the farm. There should be no other sources of un-treated manure nearby (neighboring farm) and manure disposal practices should be followed. When I used a feed through product many years ago the manure didn’t breakdown (the dung beetles wouldn’t touch it either) so it took a long time for the stuff to compost.
[QUOTE=PRS;5031433]
The feed through fly controls don’t keep the flies off the animal…they make their manure un-palatable for fly breeding, they do nothing to keep flies from finding your horse or donkey and bothering him. In order for feed throughs to be anywhere near effective they must be fed to all animals on the farm. There should be no other sources of un-treated manure nearby (neighboring farm) and manure disposal practices should be followed. When I used a feed through product many years ago the manure didn’t breakdown (the dung beetles wouldn’t touch it either) so it took a long time for the stuff to compost.[/QUOTE]
I understood that to be the case for products such as Solitude or Equitrol, etc. but not necessarily for products such as SmartBug or HorseTech’s Bugzzo, etc. Those are the feed thru’s I tried but was not clear on that before.
I will try garlic. I have never known anyone to use it, so it is good to hear it works as a 55 day supply is NOT cheap. I do have a question. If it is 100% pure dried garlic, could
I just feed regular garlic now and get the same results? Is it a special kind of garlic? Just wonderin! I grow garlic!
Not much to add, but my personal experience with our mini donkey…
We brought him home in April with strong warnings from the breeder that the bugs would really bother him and we would need to find something that works… I was hearing stories like what is posted here.
Not sure if we have gotten lucky, but this is my second year using fly predators and I can literally count the flies I see on one hand each day. He hasn’t been bothered at all. I do use Repel-X to combat the deer flies but even those aren’t too bad.
I do like Swat for on the spot protection and the Absorbine roller for ears, but ultimately we haven’t needed to use them.
Maybe something to look into for next year.
Over the years we have made our own ‘donkey pants’ yes- before jakespants! As a matter of fact my sister and I talked quite extensively about starting our own fly pants retail… of course like every stupid thing we talk about we don’t actually DO anything about- low and behold a year or two later while cruising the aisles of EA we come across Jakespants and thus proceeded to yell at each other 
You can make your own donkey pants- we’ve used recycled fly sheets, old jeans, cotton stretchy pants, etc etc etc. You need a strap over the withers, a strap across the chest, and one set like a girth. We actually got very sophisticated about it and the final version was pant legs attached to a sleezy for the donk who was nibble on by flies from head to toe.
You can also use tube socks or girl’s knee high socks- cut off the toes and pull them up, secure with some vet wrap at the top.
We’ve also added Claritin to the feed which helped but it’s expensive so use the generic brands.
We have one donkey at the rescue with this problem every year. We’ve tried so many different products with no luck. Now we buy cheap men’s dress socks at the dollar store, cut off the toe, pull them up the leg and tape the top with elasticon.
We have to retape the tops every other day or so, but it’s been very effective. We only have flies for 3-4 months a year, so not a big deal.
This is good when there’s open wounds and it’s not water based.
http://www.styalways.co.uk/shop/lincoln-antibacterial-green-gel-fly-repellent-p-1871.html
thanks much all. I love the sock idea. I was actually thinking of trying nylons! Jakes pants crack me up. If only i thought i could get/keep them on.
I have adorable mini horse blankets for my donk and he RUNS when he sees them. Loves baths and all, but will NOT be dressed up.
Fed him Garlic tonight. On another thread I saw cedar chips. The war rages.
well… you could try hanging “pennies in water in baggie” method.
I just posted another thread about putting cedar bedding in my horse porch, and the flies MELTED AWAY overnight. I’m in shock, still disbelieving, but delighted after one day and counting.
Flies LOVE donkey legs for some reason. I have always used a nice thick coat of swat on the lower legs of my guy and it works like a charm. I wash his legs of about once a week and add another slathering though fly season.
I used to used the clear swat but have switched to the pink so that I can easily see if it has rubbed off and need a new dowsing plus pink legs on a male donkey just seems appropraite.
