So Garlic? Yay or Nay

[GraceLikeRain]

I feel like early days of COTH there was a fair amount of hesitation around anemia and questions about actual efficacy. Now, I feel like it is everywhere.

Are there any actual risks when used at a logical amount? Is there any real research on if it makes a difference?

In a field of horses mine has 75% more flies despite mask, sheet, boots, swat, and coated with fly spray. I’m willing to do anything safe to try and make her less edible.

Sorry - phone glitching hardcore. Goal was horse care. I’ll move it when my iPhone decides it can click random buttons again

[GreyDes]

I didn’t have much luck seeing a difference but there are certainly a lot testimonials, so some people must be getting it to work!

I tried Springtime bug off garlic and one of the other mixes - I think Bug Check.

I’ve had better results with fly predators personally.

[JB]

I’ve never seen any research showing its effectiveness, so it’s all anecdotal. There IS research showing some fairly low levels causing Heinz Body Anemia. The supplements I’ve looked at which contain garlic have less than the lowest amount studied (that I’ve seen) and those who use those regularly for a whole season, year after year, say they don’t cause problems.

My question is - how do they know? I doubt any of the are pulling blood. Is the level really safe? Is it just safe for the length of a season? Are there changes that are starting to affect the horse by, say, August, but it’s so hot that the temperature gets the blame? Are changes pretty non-clinical by Sept but the supplement is dropped so no big deal? I don’t know the answers to any of those.

IMHO, garlic supplements for fly repelling properties are like a joint supplement or any fly spray out there - it’s something you have to try and see if it works for your horse with your particular flies.

[RedHorses]

I found apple cider vinegar (the regular stuff) reduced my QH’s multiple, blackfly bite, chest welts from three to the normal one that every other horse had. It didn’t repel bugs entirely. It did reduce his attractiveness to be the same as the other horses.

It was more effective if I started feeding it 7-10 days before the blackflies showed up in May, as opposed to staring it when they showed up. I feed five glugs from a full jug. Yes, it’s very precisely measured!

[Simkie]

I fed garlic for years in the summer months. I thought it worked great to prevent ticks. I didn’t find it to do anything for flies. I used the air dried stuff from Springtime, which is supposed to be less of a problem re: anemia.

I stopped because despite never finding ticks, I was still treating at least one for Lyme every year. The deer tick nymphs the are most likely to transmit Lyme are just so so tiny. I vaccinate for Lyme now instead, and use a pyrethrin spray on the horses daily.

I felt that using the stuff from Springtime, using a low to moderate dose, and giving them a break from it in the winter mitigated the (low) risk of HBA.

[Buster]

Let’s just say that there’s NO one that eats more garlic than I do, and everything still bites me. AND there were a couple times, I actually found a fly buzzing around in my garlic powder container, sooooooo there’s that. I wouldn’t bother, lol!

[cayuse]

What did you feed it in? Thx!

[RedHorses]

I just add it to their feed and shake it up. The horses seem to like it, even eating feed that I had accidentally put way too much ACV in.

[cayuse]

I might try this on my mini. Bugs bother him terribly. Thanks!

[Ghazzu]

I have seen no evidence of its effectiveness.
All it does is make the barn smell like an Italian kitchen.
I generally recommend that if you plan to use it in any significant quantity, you get a CBC done as a baseline, then you can check later on and see if there’s any evidence the garlic is causing a problem.
I have seen a few cases where it was apparently an issue.

[MunchingonHay]

I have had more success with Skin So Soft than garlic with bugs

[Ghazzu]

I’d rather be eaten by bugs than smell like SSS.
.
PS–I have seen SSS cause hives.
Some horses will react to the weirdest stuff.

[Larbear]

@Ghazzu

I’d rather be eaten by bugs than smell like SSS.

Same here. Can’t stand the smell of the stuff, gives me a headache. I will take the smell (and cough) from Ecovet over SSS

[SusanO]

Back when I boarded there was one owner that fed it to her horse to prevent flies. Horse had no reduction in flies, just as many as the other horses and it smelled like a day old pizza box. No ticks in that boarding place so I can’t judge for tick reduction.