'birthday horse curse'

[kelsey2017]

Well I did notice my new horse is an itchy one, but I did not notice any little crawly things. It was nice and warm today, about 40 degrees, so I pulled off the horses sheets and brushed 'em down real good and trimmed feet-the whole works! Well, about two hours later I felt a little crawly and then I found a little bitty nit crawling on me. SO we are probably all infected because I gave my 7 YO a bareback ride and then cuddled with my daughter before I was bit by the creepy crawly. So everyone got as hot a shower as they could stand and everything I could think that we touched went into the washer x3.
I do think this is a case of the 'birthday horse curse' because this is the SECOND time this has happened to me after buying a horse for myself in December. They look fine but, as soon as the weather warms up the lice wake up or whatever they do. So tomorrow everybody gets dusted when my sister brings out the insectrin dust that was left over from 7 years ago when Darby and I had our first spring. Here's to horses and all the funny things that happen! I love them though and I did a great job on their feet. If I had realized how crawly Pokey was I wouldn't have gone near the poor old fella! Pray that the dust gets them all! It will be warm-ish all week so hopefully the lice will all hatch out and two applications will do the trick.
How many of you have had to deal with this? I half expected it in Darbys case because he was in bad shape when I got him, but Pokey is a great lookin' fat and sassy boy. He did live with goats though. I really thought lice was species specific but I did have a couple of bites from today--- ahhh creepy! Sorry if you are all itchy now, I know I have got to quit talking about it!!

 

[currycomb]

worm everything with ivermectin, kill the lice from the inside out. you cannot dust enough to kill them all. (and 7yr old stuff probably not very effective)worm again in 2weeks to kill emerging eggs

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

There are lice oils now that last 2 weeks that are very effective, I still reapply them to be sure. In years that have wet falls I treat my horses in the spring when things start to warm up, as soon as I see coat shedding. Those years are bad for spring lice since they had the fall to get the nit numbers up, then lay dormant all winter on the winter coat. They love dampness. Long damp springs can be bad too, but not the sudden spring outbreak that can happen after a wet fall.

As for you and your stuff horse lice will not survive on you, but they can be really annoying and even get some folks into a rash. Tea Tree Oil shampoo kills them, as does the human lice shampoo. Hot water is great for getting most of them and your clothes will be fine with any detergent and hot water. You need to treat the horses blankets with a insecticide spray often, don't go hot water there or you will wreck your waterproofing. After your sure the horse is clear just wash the blanket as usual to get the spray off.

I have not had good luck with Ivermectin alone killing lice. No matter how many times you do it, I even tried once a week x 4 without totally clearing. Not all lice are blood suckers, some are just biting, for them ivermectin is useless.