My horse lives in a field with his horsey friends, which is great, except they get in the woods and come out with ticks. I have already removed several ticks from his face, and I would really rather just… not. Is there anything I can put on his coat to make him unattractive to ticks? Or anything I can do to make removing them somewhat less heinous? (Cutting down the woods is not an option.)
I buy the spray Frontline on Amazon. I just spray a little on the dock of her tail every two or three months. If she is going to be in deep grass or on a brushy trail ride, I spray a little on her fetlocks and perhaps other places where ticks like to bite. I use very little, a small bottle has lasted a year and should get me through next year as well. I have only found one tick on her since I started the Frontline (the tick was newly attached) and her Lyme titers show no new infections since I started using the Frontline. I don’t have a control horse, but it seems to be working.
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Equi Spot applied every two weeks. I am in Middle TN and use it from March to November every year.
One thing to consider is that Frontline is known to be toxic to honey bees which of course are experiencing something of a crisis, if you believe the experts. Just something to keep in mind. Especially if there are more environmental friendly options.
I used cat tick collars for the past couple years. Haven’t found any ticks yet. I can’t use Frontline as pony has a reaction.
I use EquiSpot and Endure fly spray and they do a pretty good job, considering he is pasture boarded. You still have to keep your eyes peeled. I have taken 2 off his eyelids, one very close to the lashes. I also have two removal tools. One stainless steel forceps and spoon, the other similar in plastic.
I use permethrin spray. Works better for me than equispot and is cheaper than Frontline. I spray legs and throat latch every 2 weeks or so. Usually have no ticks at all (and the horses here live out 24/7 in pastures with woods and lots of ticks).
I feed garlic and it’s made a HUGE difference.
We have used the Freedom45 Equine spot-on treatment for many years with great success in East TN (lots of rain and lots of woods and lots of tcks). Not perfect, but excellent.
G.
These are all AMAZING suggestions, thank you! I didn’t know about the horse-specific tick stuff. Cat collars are genius!
Are forceps different from tweezers? Is the spoon just to hold down the skin with?
I find that horses make me carry weird things in my purse on a regular basis-- duct tape, socks, absurdly large bags of peppermints, various leather straps, now garlic. Do you just peel the cloves and feed them whole, or chop them up first? I wonder what he would think if I gave garlic as a treat, lol
Be very careful with the garlic. It can be toxic to horses!
https://thehorse.com/110261/should-i-feed-my-horse-garlic-to-repel-insects/
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Powdered garlic is the way to go. I use the stuff from Springtime, which is air dried and supposedly carries less risk of Heinz body anemia. Calling garlic “toxic” is really a stretch, but there does exist the possibility of some blood dyscrasia with it’s use. Minimize that with reasonable dosing and an air dried product.
One scoop a day of the Springtime product means nearly no ticks on my four horses–this summer, I pulled one and found scabbing indicating one other that I missed, A FAR cry from what I saw before garlic. Anaplasma and Lyme suck a lot, so I’m willing to accept a very low risk of anemia. I’m just wrapping up my seasonal garlic use here (I don’t feed it once it gets cold enough that the tick risk drops significantly) and should really do some smears looking for Heinz bodies…not like I’ve seen any indication in the horses there’s a problem, but it would be interesting to take a look.
My horses don’t tolerate spot on products, so garlic has really been useful, living here in tick-ville. Didn’t expect it to work nearly this well, so have been pleasantly surprised.
We are in North Florida, so still waiting for our first freeze. A couple nights came close, but it’s still almost 80 during the daytime, definitely still open season for creepy-crawlies.
I will talk to my trainer about the remedies, too. She might even have the tick stuff on hand, knowing her!
My horse always seemed to be bothered by Frontline: he’d roll and rub at his legs. My vet wrote me this:
“It sounds like he is allergic to that product. Try Ultraboss Pour-on except don’t pour on but wear gloves and rub on legs, belly, neck, etc.”
The Ultraboss worked very well and no complaints from my horse.
After two rounds of anaplasmosis, horses are getting sprayed with Endure every few days. Apparently even with the cold weather those evil things are still around! I haven’t found any since I started with the Endure though so it does seem to work.
Where I live in NE OH, ticks are active all year long. If we have a day above freezing the ticks come out in droves, especially if it’s sunny (which is rare but it happens). Maybe you have a different species of tick that is killed by the freeze? I can only dream…
Hm I think you’re right, because I can remember getting ticks while out hiking in the wintertime. Don’t know why I was thinking there would ever be an end to creepy-crawly season at all. Put that on my Christmas list: no ticks, please, Santa!
Lyme Disease ticks go dormant until the temperature rises to 40 degrees (F), and then the go active again. I use TriTech on all days when the temperature is set to go 40 degrees or up. I never did this until my horse got anaplasmosis in January–three weeks after a warm spell in December. My vet found the scar from the tick bite beneath the horse’s jaw, which I had missed in spraying. I am the only one in a barn of 40 horses doing this, but it works.
I live in an area where ticks are rampant, and I was pulling 20-30 ticks (all different kinds, sizes, age) off some horses even after using equispot and frontline spray interchangeably every two weeks.
While I will continue to use the spray and the topical, because they work well enough for most of my horses, I also tried a brush on powder that has worked wonders for my extra tasty horses. I found it at a pop up at a local tack shop, and tried it on my horse and then went for a trail with another horse. When we came home, the other horse was covered in ticks, and I couldn’t find a single tick on my horse, who is usually a buffet.
I looked at the ingredients on the powder, and it was mainly just diatomaceous earth. Some other things were added to make it smell nice, but it’s mainly just the diatomaceous earth! I brush it on the horses who seem to always have ticks no matter what else they have on and have had great luck, so when it runs out I’m going to try regular old diatomaceous earth that happens to be laying around and see what happens!
