How to get bots off...pretty much the entire horse?

[lilhippiemomma]

Hey everybody! This is my first time posting here. In fact, I joined just to ask for help!

My mother has (for some reason) bought us another horse. Not sure how old she is (middle aged), not sure what breed she is (gaited), but by golly, we’ve got her.

I haven’t actually seen the mare yet, but she’ll be arriving on Tuesday. The problem is, she’s apparently absolutely covered in bot fly eggs. My mother is an experienced horsewoman who has had horses far longer than I’ve been alive, and she says she’s never seen anything like this. The bots are all over the horse’s body; thousands and thousands. They’re all over her coat, in her mane and tail, in her ears…

I’ve only encountered bots in tiny numbers on the legs before. Just scrape them off with a bot knife or a grooming stone and get on with life. But this is going to be something completely different. Does anybody have any idea what to do in a situation like this? (short of shaving the horse completely bald) Is there anything that we can use to get the bots out of the mane? Anything that might expedite the process?

I’d really appreciate any and all suggestions! Help!

[CrowneDragon]

I’m wondering if you wipe the horse down with a good oil-based fly spray if that will help smother/kill them (I know people use straight mineral/baby oil for this)? Then go to town with a grooming stone. I wish I knew a better way.

The mare must be pretty tolerant to end up with so many eggs!

[LarkspurCO]

I’ve used clippers to remove them from the legs, so in this case I would give her a full body clip.

Then a regular set of ear clippers or something like this might help get them out of the mane tail without scalping her. I use them to trim manes:

http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/conair-brush-styling-essentials-trim-%26-shape-hair-trimmer/ID=prod8472-product

[atr]

I wonder if a good dose of Ivermectin would do the trick. It kills skin parasites like mange mites, I wonder if it gets into the hairshaft too?

[walkinthewalk]

Welcome to the forum:)

Even though your mom’s had horses all her life and knows what bot eggs look like----is she sure she’s not looking at lice nits??

If she’s 110% sure the poor horse is covered in bot eggs, I agree a full body clip as the fastest way to get them off but then the horse will have to wear a sheet for turnout until the hair starts growing back.

The only other way I know to get that many off will be slow and laborious – that is to take warm water, soak the hair a small section at a time, give the warm water ONLY A FEW SECONDS for the eggs to think the horse is licking them, then take the bot scraper to them.

The bot knife or scraper can get the eggs off a lot easier after the eggs have been tricked into thinking the warm water is the horse’s warm saliva, so they release themselves.

Also, tell your mom to look under the chin and alongside the jowels. There is a different type of bot fly that lays eggs in that area; those eggs are able to migrate themselves into the horse’s mouth:( I keep all that hair cut short so I can see them; they are really difficult to remove, so I smother them in any kind of ointment I have handy. Antibiotic, hemerhoid ointment, just anything that will smother them but won’t harm the horse.

Gosh, WHERE did she find this horse? Is it a rescue that’s been left out in pasture 24/7 with no care?

[deltawave]

[INDENT]I wonder if a good dose of Ivermectin would do the trick. It kills skin parasites like mange mites, I wonder if it gets into the hairshaft too? [/INDENT]

Nope. Ivermectin doesn’t kill eggs. And “smothering” them doesn’t help because they’re eggs. They are not breathing.

If you use a bot knife, make it a new one. Being sharp and non-rusty helps! You have to work at it a little bit. If the eggs are absolutely everywhere, I’d body clip, but the knife will still help on the legs.

The eggs can get wet for longer than a couple of seconds without hatching. That takes a good while as the coating/glue has to soften. I’ve never found wetting or soaking to help that much with egg removal.

[Larry_Garner]

I have had good luck with a rough wash cloth and HOT water with a little mineral oil. Rub the area first to wet, then repeat with vigorous strokes
You are mimicking the horses tounge which is how bot eggs get released otherwise.
I prefer this to a bot knife or a bot pumice block.
When I watch a horse licking these bots eggs I wonder if they itch somehow to start the process?

[deltawave]

I’ve never seen a horse actually licking bot eggs. I’ve wondered the same thing–they must slightly irritate the skin somehow, but none of mine ever come in with the appearance they’ve been licking the eggs.

Does make one wonder about the IQ and adaptability of bots that lay their eggs on the horse’s face or tummy! Must work somehow or they’d be extinct. :lol: Maybe mutual grooming spreads the love in more ways than one. :dead:

[atr]

Ah, good to know about the Ivermectin.

So glad we scarcely ever see bot flies here.

[walkinthewalk]

[QUOTE=deltawave;7097568]
I’ve never seen a horse actually licking bot eggs. I’ve wondered the same thing–they must slightly irritate the skin somehow, but none of mine ever come in with the appearance they’ve been licking the eggs.

Does make one wonder about the IQ and adaptability of bots that lay their eggs on the horse’s face or tummy! Must work somehow or they’d be extinct. :lol: Maybe mutual grooming spreads the love in more ways than one. :dead:[/QUOTE]

When I see my horses feverishly biting their fetlocks, I know there are bot eggs down there and I need to start scraping<—which, where I live, I have been doing for a month:(

The warm water trick works but you have to be quick. I lay a soaking wet (warm) wash cloth against the bot eggs for about 20 seconds then quickly start scraping before the air has a chance to cool the wet hair off.

This link has a blurp addressing the bot flies that lay migrating eggs under the horse’s chin - even more disgusting that plain old bot eggs plastered all over the legs and mane:mad:

Smothering those migrating eggs with some sort of thick ointment does stop their movement and after about a day, they come off really easy.

http://www.pfizerah.com/Print_Friendly.aspx?country=us&lang=en&species=eq&drug=pu&t=2329&key=2271&type=3&s=/health.aspx

Where it says in part:

G. nasalis lays about 500 yellow eggs around the chin and throat of the horse. These eggs are not dependent on the horse’s licking them to hatch. G. nasalis burrows under the skin to the mouth, wandering through it for about a month before migrating to the stomach for overwintering. Then the cycle begins again

[Morgan_Black]

Smothered my two mares’ legs yesterday with a paste of diatomaceous earth and coconut oil. Seemed like a good idea to encase any hatching/vulnerable larvae in DE. Bot eggs seemed to be a LOT less today – possibly dropping off with the thick paste. If so, those eggs are potentially viable. My plan is to shave off the bot eggs while feet are standing on newspaper that can be burned afterwards. Haven’t run into bot eggs for decades either.