Shedding? Already? Mites/Lice?

[albahurst]

GAH! These horses are going to make me crazy!

So here I was just brushing the horses and I see this stuff. This yucky stuff. All this WHITE and yucky stuff. Hair. Flying off my mare's body. Nnnnnooooo!

Do you know what this means? For the next 3-4 months until May I get to be covered with this STUFF! Yuck! I am not amused .

Okay, all drama set aside.

Is anybody else's horses shedding already? I'm only asking because I am relatively nervous about it. For three years we've battled lice/mites in the winter time. They seem to only act up around this time until I end up clipping them. Afterwards there isn't anymore itching.

I was brushing one of my youngest fillies and she had a dime sized raw spot on her flank. I had this exact problem last year and the year before. I ended up with her looking like this (March 2010) :

Another mare ended up like this (March 2010) :

I know that they're caused by bugs. I see them sometimes in the summer/fall but they don't seem to do any harm until around now until May. I've had my vet look at them and we've treated it with stuff that she prescribed last year. All of my horses are update on worming as well...and were last year as well.

I also know WHOM we got them from. The only outside horse that ever had access to our herd was a mare that stayed with us while our stud unsuccessfully serviced her. (She never took and we opted not to allow her to come back.)

I LOATH late winter/early spring.

I am very frustrated. I hope it doesn't get as severe as it did last year. A couple had bruised, raw skin about 1 inch in diameter on their flanks and bellies. Even after clipping it took awhile for the hair to grow back. I hate it; especially when I try to medicate it months in advance.

Any tips? Bathing is out of the question because it is MUCH too cold here.

To me this looks like a fungal and/or bacterial skin problem. Can your vet do a skin scraping to find out for you?

 

[Tremor]

To me this looks like a fungal and/or bacterial skin problem. Can your vet do a skin scraping to find out for you?

I have honestly never asked her to. We're both pretty sure that they're lice because of the fact that there ARE lice on their bodies.

I'm wondering if you're thinking its fungal/bacterial related because the skin has been so irritated from scratching and rubbing?

 

[Eagle]

Can some one tell me about the environment? Do mites live in the area the horse was before de-licing? Is it safe to turn horses out in a field or put it in a stable of a horse that had lice ?

Thanks in advance?

 

[albahurst]

I have honestly never asked her to. We're both pretty sure that they're lice because of the fact that there ARE lice on their bodies.

I'm wondering if you're thinking its fungal/bacterial related because the skin has been so irritated from scratching and rubbing?

Sometimes a secondary infection can set in from the scratching.

 

[little shiloh farm]

After the skin exam there was nothing that indicated fungal or bacterial. There were no pustules, scabs, skin flakes, dry skin, red spots, bumps, or and other signs of something going on that indicated a biopsy or skin scrape was needed. The skin is healthy and in the spots that the hair had come out a day or so before there was already hair growing in, and the spots on her neck where the hair had just come out, there was healthy skin. The filly is acting normal, eating normal, all body functions are normal. The only issue is that she has this weird patchy hair loss, and you can pluck her like a chicken

and the hair just comes out with no resistance.

 

From what the vet said, she believes this is either interal/stress or a weird shedding pattern, however, nothing has changed in my program for feeding, turnout, etc so we drew blood and will have results this afternoon.

 

Yes, it could be just weird shedding, I mean we have had only about 10 days this winter that were cold (we are in coastal north carolina) and it is January with a temp yesterday of 76......