Help with biting lice/mites

I need suggestions.

We have a lot of woods. About this time every year I have a small battle with these lice/mites. Normally a bath or two of Permetherin (?) and I have won.

The problem is that it is my big gelding that has them. He was abused and giving him a bath is not an option. Neither is spraying him with anything. Are there anything I can feed him? I know about the feed-thru fly spray. Is there anything stronger?

My other thought is the dusting powders. Anyone used those on horses before? If you can use them on chickens, they should be safe enough for horses, right?

Thoughts and suggestions appreciated. He is such a sweet boy. If I have to, I will find a way to spray him or bathe him. I just don't want traumatize him or take the chance on getting myself hurt if there is something else to try.

Have the vet come out, they probably know of something that is fed thru or just patted on.

Also, in a pinch when I don't have time to deal with horses who hate being sprayed with things, I just spray it onto a cloth and rub it on.

I have used the dusting powder before. Mind ya I'm in canada so it was very hard to get my hands on due to our insecticide laws. My vet once gave it for me for a mare I had, and well to save the costs on calling the vet and having the exam fee I was able get it at a feed store.

They only thing I would suggest and highly re command is wear rubber gloves and a mask. Take the horse to an area where horses do not go regularly. For me it was near edge of a field at the back of the property. The reason for this was that the lice may jump off and than find another host aka horse and any hair with eggs can survive for awhile.

I had issues with my older qh and had the vet examine him. He gave me some dumb answers and left. While my old guy was standing there I noticed under his winter coat lice!!! Kinda upset my vet didn't see this when he did the skin pinch test.

Another thing is to bleach all tools you use with the horses to kill the eggs.

I do belive on the container you can dust the areas outdoors on the ground. I never did this and had no problem with coming back.

There is two different kinds of lice. One eat the dead skin the other live off the host's blood.

If you are able to get one and look at pictures of the two different kind you can treat the blood sucking ones with wormer.

Personally I hit with wormer and deliced all the horses on the property.
Posted via Mobile Device

I had a horse with lice he was a rescue I wormed him with ivermectin and used horse lice dust. Had to do that several times a couple of weeks apart got rid of the lice.