This summer I made the mistake of putting Cat & Lu on Vitality Ultra (a sweet feed) because I was at my wits end trying to get Lu to gain some weight and I was trying to beef up Cat. Well they both started getting bug bite. No big deal right? Wrong! What ever these little things were they don’t seem to come off easily. I had to dig at them and pull them off (they were like little scabs on the skin but they were attached to the hair).
I figured the sweet feed was the culprit since ONLY Lu and Cat had them so I took them off of it. I had hoped with time they’d go away but I wasn’t that lucky. I ended up blanketing Lu with a fly sheet just to keep them from getting worse.
Well we are at least 5 months later and they are still on her only they are growing out with her hair now (but still attached to the hair).
I know it is hard to see but can you see it in the picture?
See my hand? See all of the bigger white specks? Those are the little beggers.
My Furminator after a few swipes over her coat.
Another view
Any clue what these little pest are?
It is not rain rot and I’ve tried to muckitch on her, I’ve tried bathing her (iodine, ezall, anti fungal/bacterial stuff from the vet, etc.), I’ve tried baby oil/Listerine mixture, etc. Basically anything and everything I could think of and it seems the only way to remove them is to pick them off one by one.
Luckily Cat didn’t get his nearly as bad as Lu (of course not) so hers are almost all picked out.
Here are some pics of the little horse that needs to live in a padded bubble. Lol
Look! She’s almost getting fat! And look at that hair coat compared to last year. lol
Horrible pictures I know. My camera doesn’t like the lighting of the barn so it puts the spots in the pics for some reason.
Who me?
Can you see her three dimensional mane?
By the way - if you are wondering I am back to feeding Progressive only they've come out with a new "supplement". It is called ProAdd Ultimate Supplement (guranteed less then 10% NSC and has been tested around 7% for those who care). I'm top dressing Empower for Cat and Lu. Lu gets 1/2 lb. of the Pro Add and 1/2 lb. of Empower a day and has never looked better (although I think part of that is due to her maturing a bit as well).
Progressive Nutrition has a product similar to the Empower but it's almost double the price per bag so that I why I'm using the Nutrena product for now.
1 comment:
You mean to tell me that you can't take a sample of this to the vet, have them look at it under a microscope, and tell you what it is? How about the cooperative extension agent? How about a college insect class?
If you don't find out it's life cycle it is going to be hard to get rid of it. It amazes me that the other horses, dogs, cat, or kids haven't gotten it.
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