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A good reason to use Fly Masks

3K views 13 replies 12 participants last post by  ecasey 
#1 ·
A friend of mine's horse is at the local university after severely scratching his eye. She is going to have a several thousand dollar vet bill as he has already been there almost a week.

On the afternoon that it happened the gnats were extremely bad. They were eating me alive and I had only been outside for 5 minutes. In fact, they were so bad, I moved my horses into the barn in front of the fan. My old mare suffers from sweet itch and she hates bugs. If you lock her out of the barn, she will squeeze into the garage to get away from them. If the garage is closed, she will go right up on the front porch.

My pony's eyes will swell and run if I leave her without a mask on. I keep a mask on her 24/7 for this reason.

Just a reminder of what can happen if you leave fly masks off and your horses are sensitive to gnats. If you have ever had a gnat in your eye, you will know what I mean! Those things hurt!
 
#2 ·
I often wonder how many eye removals, due to injury or being scratched and developing infection could have been avoided with the use of fly masks.

Where I live, my horses wear masks a good nine months out of the year - the masks also offer UV protection which is great for sensitive eyes.

I also wash those masks in the washer every night.
 
#3 ·
I used to use fly masks, and now no longer do, because of one incident
Einstein was in the corral, and started to run around blindly, in danger of trying to go right through the rails. A hornet had gotten into that mask, and was buzzing a round like crazy.
I was lucky to get close enough, while he was running around, in panic, striking with his front feet, to rip it off
Been wary of ever putting them on since.
 
#4 ·
I have been thankful to not have many eye injuries, but I do notice, when Selena wears her mask she gets a LOT of eye buildup. I think it's due to the mix of dust in her stall, shavings and such. But I noticed everytime I pulled it off she had big old crusty goobers in her eye corners, that she doesn't get without a mask.

If I don't have one sensitive to flies I just don't bother.
 
#5 ·
I've had to take the fly mask off Harley because he will get it so dirty, he can barely see out of it! On hot days, the sweat and dust will also build up inside it. So I only put it on when he has a cut on his face that requires some protection from flies, and never when I'm not here to keep an eye on him. Kodak will not tolerate anything on her face - I've tried. But neither is terribly sensitive to flies, so I suppose I can get away with it. They don't get sweet itch, though the horse flies tend to drive them nuts, but I leave the barn open so they can escape into their stalls when it gets too bad.

I guess it's a balancing act for each horse. There are advantages and disadvantages to wearing fly masks and we all have to make decisions based on the needs and risk for each horse.
 
#7 ·
I suppose it is a choice to make according to each situation. My mare just gets them off so I don't bother putting it on her anymore, Sis's gelding has one on with an addition down over his nose, it is more for sun protection as he is white and gets a sunburned nose. They can come inside whenever they want to get out of the flies so that's a plus, if they couldn't get in away from the worst of the flies I would look into a different mask for my mare that hopefully she couldn't loose.
 
#8 ·
I use fly masks on all the horses here.
2 have white faces & have been sunburned before they came here. They burn easily. One has an abnormal eyelid border from burns so with sun her eye waters & can't properly flush the eye with tears so tends to get irritated without a mask.
1 has aural plaques & the mask, over the years seems to have decreased them although maybe they are just going away on their own but a mask doesn't hurt.
They others wear masks because I don't like to see them shaking their heads all day trying to get rid of ear gnats or flies at their eyes.
With the masks none get those puffy looking lower eyelids from squinting all day.
All masks are removed at night.
I've never had a bug get caught in one but I have had pieces of hay stuck in the masks when feeding from an above ground feeder so depending on conditions they may not wear the masks or I feed on the ground.
I'm sure if I had huge pastures with trees I would change my use of masks.
 
#9 ·
It can definitely depend on each horse's individual needs. Some need them more than others. Redz has always attracted flies, they don't seem to 'bother' him but I leave his mask on in hot weather during the day. At night when we feed, I take it off then it goes back on in the morning. The weather is supposed to be breaking soon, so there will be less flies. Gah, I can't stand them myself!
 
#12 ·
Yes, flymasks are great, however my one horse makes it his mission in life to remove his & all surrounding horses' masks and stomp them into the dirt. When I had him at the trainer's to learn to jump, I went & visited him there. He was in a paddock way off to the side, the trainer said he is in solitude, he rips fly sheets and masks off any horse he can reach. I told her that before hand when she asked for his flymask and sheet, obviously she thought she knew something I didn't, lol.
 
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#14 ·
Severe headshaking case, diagnosis and happy ending

Oops, posted in the wrong thread. Deleted! :)
 
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