# Ticks! And Horses Reaction to Bites



## Rosebud64 (Jan 11, 2010)

Does anyone else's horse react to tick bites with yellow crusty weepy sores all over their heads, chins and necks?

My poor horse, Nikki, gets these horrible sores all over her. They start off all yellow and crusty, then when those fall off, she has open sores from the tick bites.

What does everyone use to keep ticks off their horses?

I don't find that many find ticks on her, but it has to be tick bites. She also loses tail hair off her tail bone.

I hate those emmer effers!


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## bubba13 (Jan 6, 2007)

Not a whole lot you can do to keep the ticks off. Mow the pasture, use fly spray (helps a little), do a daily comb-over, put Swat is the most heavily-affected areas (flank, armpit, crest).


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## TashaK (Jan 5, 2012)

Thanks for posting this, I'm so glad to find out that someone else's horse has has this reaction. I recently moved my gelding from a very dry environment where there are almost no ticks to the dewy mountains of No. CA. I found half a dozen ticks on my dogs every day and my gelding developed the yellow crusties all over his face mostly but I never could find a tick on him so I didn't know what to blame. It made sense that was from ticks but it wasn't till today that I finally found an actual tick, head stuck in a yellow crusty scab. It wasn't engorged which makes me wonder if my horse's body is actually hindering the tick from getting blood by creating the yellow crusties? Thus he's getting bitten repeatedly? Just a hypothesis.

Now, what to do about it...I found that Best Yet Cedar oil sprayed on my dogs weekly has worked WONDERS! And since it's completely nontoxic I don't mind using it A LOT! Plus I've watched ticks die and fall off after being sprayed directly. So now that I know to blame ticks for my horse's skin condition I will begin rigorously coating my horse with it and I expect great results. Thoroughly scrubbing and combing him would be a great additional measure but since it's rather cold winter, that will have to wait till Spring.


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## EPMhorse (Jun 14, 2009)

Rosebud,
I think you are seeing the horse's immune reaction to the proteins the tick injects in the horse. Ticks carry bacteria, virues, protozoa, and mycotoxins in the gut and saliva. The ticks have dropped off by the time you see the scabs. I use the 14-day spot on fly treatment to control the ticks.

Tashak, I would think that the ticks you are seeing are nymph deer ticks. They are very small, and don't look like the engorged brown dog ticks. If the horse has a reaction the tick has injected some type of protein or pathogen into the horse.


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

Rosebud64 said:


> Does anyone else's horse react to tick bites with yellow crusty weepy sores all over their heads, chins and necks?
> 
> My poor horse, Nikki, gets these horrible sores all over her. They start off all yellow and crusty, then when those fall off, she has open sores from the tick bites.
> 
> ...


That ain't nuthin'. My Arab is so allergic to tick bites that, if I miss seeing one on him, the bites have been known to swell up the size of a Robin's egg:shock::shock: I almost had to call the vet out for one that was way up inside his thigh. Thankfully he is exemplary to work with because I had to cut it open twice a day to keep it draining.

My area has the gray Deer Ticks and we are bombarded with Lone Star ticks. The Lone Star ticks look like "shiny patent leather" pieces of dirt when they first attach themselves.

As has been mentioned, check your horse daily and keep the ticks pulled off.

What you describe does sound like tick bites. Most of the time, when you clean all that yuk away, you will be able to see a tiny hole in the center of the sore --- that's where the tick drilled in.

Keep the bites clean. To keep the itch/pain down for the horse and to help the healing process, make a 50-50- mix of hemerhoid *ointment* (not cream) and Triple Antibiotic ointment.

When the flies come out, you can add SWAT or generic diaper rash cream to the mix to keep the flies off.

I keep three my horses on equine garlic from mid-March thru late October or early November. It is 85% efficient in keeping the ticks off them. I still every crevice on everyone with a flashlight each night and again in the morning to make them as tick-less as I possibly can.

The 4th horse has ulcer issues, so he can't have garlic and guess who that is? Why yessssss of course it would be the Arab who's very allergic to tick bites ANNNND also to midge fly bites:--( 

The only thing I have found that works is Repel-X spray but it has to be mixed to the directions when spraying for ticks. My skin-sensitiv Arab can't handle being sprayed more than once a week with that stuff and he's out in pasture every day. I spend in an inordinate amount of time checking him vs. the time I spend on the Walking Horses, who can eat the processed garlic.

We bushogged five times this year and I'm sure that helps a lot but we are have a lot of woods, in which there are pine and cedar -- something the Lone Star ticks love love love:-(

We aren't short on deer or beef cattle either, so the gray ticks live large too:--(

I really am not making light of the tick issue. I hate the little ******ds--

EDITED TO ADD: When pulling ticks off any animal or yourself:

1. Get as secure a hold of the head as you can.

2. Pull STRAIGHT BACK and FAST.

2.1 If you don't get the head out of its host "five seconds ago" it will quickly regurgitate everything it has eaten from who-knows how many previous hosts.

If the tick dies on the host? It will regurgitate back into the host it's stuck on.

So don't be namby-pamby about pulling those d*** things off, grab hold and pull back quickly.


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