[HollyBubbles]

Well, I have grazed in the same place for all 4 of my riding years so far and only ever gotten 1-2 ticks throughout an entire year.. I still make sure to tick check all the time however.
Sunday night: Tick checked, nothing, not even one.

Tuesday night: I went out to change covers and nearly fell over backwards, my poor boy was being eaten alive by literally hundreds of the filthy blood sucking creatures.
There were big lumps starting at his cheek bones, going all the way down his neck/chest/belly and legs, a few over the saddle area and a lot on his legs also, I even caught the nasty suckers still crawling up his legs :evil:
3 out of 4 legs were all swollen up (as in no definition between hoof and fetlock, and between fetlock and knee/stifle)

Got mum outside to help me get rid of the things, and I alone pulled out and squashed over 50 in the first hour, mum was pulling them out too.
He was not looking his usual self, so I called the vet and asked what to do, she said scrape them off with a knife shock and cover him with ripcord, so I pulled out as many ticks as I could find, and covered him in ripcord, everywhere but his face (seeing as ripcord IS a poison) I then put a clean cover on him and turned him out, he is now being checked up to 4 times daily.

The lumps are slowly going down, but I know there are more ticks in the lumps that arent going down, the problem is that there are so many of them and they are at the tiny stage, they're insanely hard to see and even harder to get out of him!

What to do!! the vet didn't really suggest much, I'm insanely worried about him getting sick if I don't find and remove all the ticks.
His legs are less swollen now, just a bit puffy today but going down, but what to do about the area's where the ticks have been, and where they nasty creatures still are that I can't get out?
He has raw raised spots where ticks have been, that are crusted over, so I'm not sure whether to pick the crust off, disinfect and treat or leave it be completely.

I just need to get those ticks off and keep them off!! So what idea's you got?? :-(

 

[goneriding]

Equine Insect Protection: How to Remove Ticks from Your Horse

 

[Foxhunter]

Get some pure Neem Oil off the internet, Mix 5 ml Neem with 3 ml of shampoo and add 1 litre of hot water and wash him all over with the solution. Ticks and lice will drop off and not return - the solution will stay on for at least two weeks.
It will also keep fleas and ticks away from dogs and other flies away from the horse.

 

[COWCHICK77]

I like Foxhunter's idea...I will have to try that too.

I have been told, but never tried it, you can buy the yellow mineral blocks with the sulphur in it, it is supposedly to discourage the ticks from latching on. But like I said, I don't know that from experience.

There was just another thread similar to this on here last week, there was some good ideas on there too.

 

[Saddlebag]

If you have an ungrazed field, turn your horses in to that. Ticks congregate where there is plenty of carbon dioxide which animals give off. They will linger beside a well travelled trail then hop a ride on the host as it passes by.

 

[Joe4d]

build a small chicken coop, get you a bunch of chickens, let em run around the fields, Good eggs and no more ticks.

 

[Casey02]

Wow i got goosebumps reading this, and im completely creeped out if i would have came out to a horse covering in tick i probably would have just died and then shaved him LOL jk! I have no idea the most i have ever found on my horse was one!

 

[HollyBubbles]

He is in an ungrazed paddock and we do have chickens :\
I'll have to look at buying the neem oil and the sulphur block, until then I think I'm going to be straining my eyes trying to find and pull the suckers out. I just hope no more come in

 

[SueNH]

Guinea Hens spend their entire days looking for ticks to eat.

Soak a cotton ball with alcohol and put it on the tick. It will back out.

Spray the horse down with a flyspray that has permethrin in it. Something that will last several days. Ticks are tough. The weaker sprays won't work.

Yuck! I hate ticks. I should get ready for them here. Was a mild winter and the last guinea hen was eaten by coyotes. I had zero ticks when I had a flock of guinea hens going.

 

[TexasBlaze]

Try covering the ticks in vaseline. They wouldnt be able to breathe and itll kill them.

 

[PaintedShanty]

DO NOT cover the tick in anything like Vaseline or rubbing alcohol, this will usually cause the tick to vomit up the blood it has ingested which dramatically increases the chances of your horse getting sick.

The method recommended by most vets is to take large enough a pair of tweezers, grasp the tick as close to your horses skin as possible and steadily pull straight back (perpendicular to the skin) - do not yank and do not twist, doing either will increase the likelihood of the tick's head separating from it's body.

AFTER the tick is removed, drown it in a mason jar full of rubbing alcohol - there it won't matter if it vomits up blood as it dies and you can drown multiple ticks in the same jar until you can't fit any more.

 

[Scoope]

Holly - are they cattle ticks?? we had a similar problem (don't know if its the sudden humidity or what but the tick population went ballistic) , we used a few vials (get the vet to give you a weight/dosage) of Frontline (the stuff for dogs/cats) for a quick fix as it killed the larve and eggs as well as the adult bugs. Your vet might have a generic substitute that would be cheaper but it worked really well.

chickens are rubbish for getting rid of ticks - you want a few guinea fowl , there's lots cheap on trademe usually , really low effort and they roost in the trees so no hutch needed. They get rid of ticks/ flying ants - any insects really. or Peacocks are good as well im told , but the guinea fowl are cheaper, not especially bright birds though.

 

[Dreamcatcher Arabians]

Raising Guinea Fowl

When we first moved to Oklahoma my horses got covered in ticks. An old farmer told me about the Guineas and I got about 30 with my next door neighbor. Haven't seen a tick (nor a snake) in years. LOVE my noisey, utterly stupid Guineas!

 

[HollyBubbles]

Holly - are they cattle ticks?? we had a similar problem (don't know if its the sudden humidity or what but the tick population went ballistic) , we used a few vials (get the vet to give you a weight/dosage) of Frontline (the stuff for dogs/cats) for a quick fix as it killed the larve and eggs as well as the adult bugs. Your vet might have a generic substitute that would be cheaper but it worked really well.

chickens are rubbish for getting rid of ticks - you want a few guinea fowl , there's lots cheap on trademe usually , really low effort and they roost in the trees so no hutch needed. They get rid of ticks/ flying ants - any insects really. or Peacocks are good as well im told , but the guinea fowl are cheaper, not especially bright birds though.

Yeah I think so, we're on a dairy farm so I'm guessing that's them, but we haven't seen any on our cows so apparently they would rather my horse :evil:
Oh wow, that might be an idea, didn't even think of that lol.
Yeah he's covered in ripcord at the moment, so far there's no more ticks and most of the lumps have gone down where I've managed to pull the suckers out.

Now he's got those horrible crusty bits that are lumpy from having ticks on them.. Should I pick them then disinfect and treat or just leave them? They're even over his face and he didn't have ticks on his face! His legs are still a bit puffy too so he's having those sponged down with cold water each day.

I see the picture below, they look like pretty cool little animals haha might talk to dad about them.

 

[QOS]

Poor guy!!! Biscuit had two ticks last year that left lumps. He had last summer and it left a scabby place for weeks. I run my hands over the horses all the time checking for ticks.

A friend said one of her horses years ago got infested with ticks on its tail. She said a clump of its tail just fell out. poor thing!!!

Hope your boy is better soon.

 

[HollyBubbles]

Poor guy!!! Biscuit had two ticks last year that left lumps. He had last summer and it left a scabby place for weeks. I run my hands over the horses all the time checking for ticks.

A friend said one of her horses years ago got infested with ticks on its tail. She said a clump of its tail just fell out. poor thing!!!

Hope your boy is better soon.

Yeah I felt so sorry for him, he's feeling a lot better now so hopefully I can keep on top of it!
I've been over-checking him for ticks ever since, everywhere from inbetween hairs on his tail, to in and around his sheath, and up through his forelock and everything, I'm going overboard but I'd rather do that than have this happen again

 

[SkyeDawn]

This is horrifying. Ticks FREAK me out. They're so hard and their little legs wiggling UGHHHH. I'm not usually such a girl about this kind of stuff, but beetles and ticks and spiders just scare the crap out of me. Out of all of them, ticks are the worst for me. If I had seen my horse covered in hundreds of them, I probably would have screamed, started balling then passed out.

I worked in a dog grooming salon, and any time a dog came in with ticks I had to have one of the other girls get them. It's embarrassing! Especially freaks me out if I feel one before I see it. Giving me the willies just typing this.

I hope your boy gets better!

 

[HollyBubbles]

This is horrifying. Ticks FREAK me out. They're so hard and their little legs wiggling UGHHHH. I'm not usually such a girl about this kind of stuff, but beetles and ticks and spiders just scare the crap out of me. Out of all of them, ticks are the worst for me. If I had seen my horse covered in hundreds of them, I probably would have screamed, started balling then passed out.

I worked in a dog grooming salon, and any time a dog came in with ticks I had to have one of the other girls get them. It's embarrassing! Especially freaks me out if I feel one before I see it. Giving me the willies just typing this.

I hope your boy gets better!

Yep, after seeing that many in one go I'm not a fan of them either :-|
I very nearly did do that and I've seen things more gruesome than I care to describe, I think it was more because that was my baby covered in those things.

I can just imagine that haha.
He's better for now, now I'm just not sure to do with the crusty bits left behind. Like do I peel off the crusty bits and disinfect them or just leave them? hmmmm

 

[RiddlesDarkAngel5]

This post gave me shivers, you're poor guy! Im not sure what to do about the crusty bits. I probably wouldnt pick the scab off just so that there arent open wounds that more ticks could infiltrate.
Good luck!

 

[HollyBubbles]

This post gave me shivers, you're poor guy! Im not sure what to do about the crusty bits. I probably wouldnt pick the scab off just so that there arent open wounds that more ticks could infiltrate.
Good luck!

Hmm, good point. Didn't think about that. Maybe I'll just keep the bits disinfected over top of the scabs or something. I'm going to keep the ripcord on him though so hopefully that deters the little suckers