Fly bites

[haffyfan]

Murph is covered in them and I mean covered...looks like he has the pox or something!

Usually he gets a few as he's quite sensitive but his face and neck are covered and afew on his body too. I ahven't been using fly rugs due to the heat but of course he now has one on and always wears a face mask regardless. He had a few Sat eve but by Sun am he was covered head to foot but worst on his face/neck. He is fine within himself and they don't appear to irritate him at all.

Some are swellings/lumps but some are crusty/raw...I ahve had a couple of nasty ones myself, one that made my wrist swell, so it's something nasty thats biting but no idea what.

I ahve been cleaning them up and popping Savlon or hpercal (sp) on and then sudocreme on any open ones as a barrier to flies. Some of the lumps appear to have gone down a bit this morning but has any one any experience of this at all? If so how did you treat it?

[haffyfan]

Forgot to say he weras a mask 24/7 apart from riding so they have got under it I guess...maybe thats why his face has come off worse?

[racaille]

This sounds very like the monster horseflies we get here - taons - they sort of stab you to suck blood and on a 'white' horse like Paco they leave a big dribble of blood. The wound comes up hot, hard and round and very itchy on humans, less so on horses. Antihistamine works quite well for humans.

The problem with these is that they can stab right through fabric - I often get bitten on my leg while riding - through my joddies - so rugs/masks are not terribly effective. The only thing that helps is lots of fly repellent, applied often. And garlic chips added to feed can help, but in my experience are not a miracle cure.

This may not be a solution for you but chickens are effective - they leap up to eat the beggars and my horses will stand quite still to let the chickens underneath their bellies. ;D

[scattymare]

Haffy I think your doing the right thing already. All we can really do is try to prevent as much as possible and sooth and releive as much as we can.
I think also some horses, like humans, have a more severe reaction than others. Myric for example gets covered in small hard lumpy bites, Sancy's seem to cause larger flatter areas of swelling but Patrick doesn't get any lumps - but I do quite often find small blood marks around his sheath and girth area.
It's so hard keeping them off - the other day I saturated P in fly repellant before we rode, did the same again on our return, but still an hour later the boogers were attacking him again.

[zoe]

It sounds like horse flys, we've got loads. Last week when it was baking hot I was doing the neddies wearing shorts and got about 8 bites on my legs off horseflies. At the time they just hurt a little bit and bled and I was very good and didn't touch them but the next day omg I had hard swollen patches that itched like mad - I looked like I had the pox!
I can't think of anything else you could do as you seem to be doing everything I can think of.

I'm going to have to have words with my chickens as they are too interested in scratching in the poo to catch horseflies!

[jack]

jack gets covered in lumps ever year though he cant use a fly rug as there isnt one to fit him though he wears a fly mask
when the vet came up a few weeks ago i showed her these and she said that the sites where he always gets them are where he has been bitten in the past and the scare area just gets inflamesd or something like that any how i explaned that ive tryed just about every fly rug around and they dont fit and she said use a cold bucket of water with baking soda though i think she ment bicarb soda give jack a sponge down with it do not rinse which will help stop the itching from the bites and smother him in fly repelent which we are doing and it does seem to be helping

[duckles]

Horse flies are awful here as well. It is strange though that some of the horses don't seem that bothered by them and others are driven mad. I am sure there is a scientific reason but in the mean time I am broke with fly spray as JB is one of those who is driven mad. Cori used to be as well but he is doing great this year.