# Donkey Lice Question



## terri46355 (May 16, 2003)

I was just given a small 15-20 year-old donkey. He has lice on his forehead. What do you recommend to get rid of the lice before I turn him out with my mule?


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

Lice usually live in warmer areas than the forehead. Between back legs, behind the ears, between the front legs, etc. 

I would encourage you to check those areas to ensure you're dealing with lice and there are some good treatments available. 

If you don't find them in the warm areas, I would wonder about ringworm or something else.


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## jennigrey (Jan 27, 2005)

A friend of mine has a bunch of hairy horses and a few of them turn up with lice each spring. He says they turn up under the mane and around the poll first. I found that to be true with the Icelandic we board here as well. Never found them on other parts of his body. Just neck and poll.

There's a dust you can apply... comes in a shaker can kinda like Parmesan cheese except taller and skinnier. They market it for chickens, garden, swine, horses. I've read the label and it's exactly the same percentages of the same active ingredients but they charge more when there's a horse on the label.


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## BellaVista (Sep 27, 2013)

Worm with ivermectin


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

The dust works really well. Make sure all the lice are gone before you turn him out with your mule or they'll both have lice.


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

Lice are not something that horses just "turn up with in spring". They get them from other lice-infested horses. If you're seeing lice every year, your horse has lice all year, and they're infesting all other horses they come into contact with. People who work closely with your lice-infested horses like vets and farriers can transfer the lice to other horses too.


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## jennigrey (Jan 27, 2005)

Yes, in my friend's case the the lice are undoubtedly being harbored somewhere for the balance of the year and only have a population explosion in the spring. He does not treat the lice unless a horse seems to be damaging himself with rubbing. He says that the symptoms lessen as spring comes on, until finally by mid-spring the symptoms have disappeared for the remainder of the year. He says he is unable to detect lice on any of his horses until they show up again the next year or sometimes the year after that. Perhaps there is a very small population that remains on a young horse or an old retired horse that doesn't get as much contact as the others, and perhaps that horse re-infects the others. Only some of them seem to be affected.


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## bonnie in indiana (May 10, 2002)

I don't think that you are getting the replies that you are looking for.
It is not rocket science-------------Worm with Ivermectin and powder with 7 dust for the garden. 7Dust comes in 2 strenghts--5 and 10%. It is hard to find the 10%. I use either one. You can be quite liberal.

You can use it on your dogs. the back yard, in the dog house, on the carpet and on your veggies in the garden. It is safe as it states that you can wash your veggies and immediately eat them. I have used for all of the above for the last 25 years.

At the age of your animal, you should watch how he eats. If his grain dribbles back out of his mouth, you should get his teeth floated [filed down by a vet so they grind grain evenly. A common thing in equines of prime age and older.

Hopes this helps


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

The only thing I know about lice is that if you're managing 80 head and and the 81st has lice, a dream job becomes a nightmare in a huge hurry. 

Back then, the only thing available was some smelly stuff that had to be mixed with water and the entire horse had to be washed daily for a week. It's not that easy to catch 81 head of horses in a river valley and it's even harder to convince the less domesticated that they wanted a sponge bath. 

Thirty some years later, I still shudder when someone mentions lice.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

I don't think ivermectin (as in oral wormer) is very effective on chewing lice although useful on biting lice. Also you can't spot treat lice completely as they really are found in various places at various times.


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## Teej (Jan 14, 2012)

Some of the fly sprays also kill lice. Ultra Shield by Absorbine or Tri-Tec 14 by Farnam are two examples. 

I've brought 2 different horses in that had lice when it was too cold to bathe and between dosing them with ivermectin and really dousing them with fly spray about every other day for a couple of weeks it cleared them up.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

where I want to said:


> I don't think ivermectin (as in oral wormer) is very effective on chewing lice although useful on biting lice. Also you can't spot treat lice completely as they really are found in various places at various times.


I think there are some pretty good products available now but I can tell you that if one of your recruits missed a spot with the sponge bath method, it generated another round of sponge baths for the entire herd......and another round and another round.


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## jennigrey (Jan 27, 2005)

Too bad it's hard to dip a horse.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

jennigrey said:


> Too bad it's hard to dip a horse.



My grandfather talks about dipping horses and cattle and I've seen pictures of it but it looked like an ugly mess.


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## jennigrey (Jan 27, 2005)




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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

I believe in old days, they dug a "trough" type trench that they filled with whatever they were dipping animals in, then ran the horses/cattle, etc. through the trough. It was pretty much like a reverse cattle ramp, it went down instead of up. Seems like an easy way to do it. 

Also, we run cattle through drench cloth...like a car wash with the heavy hanging cloth strips, to fly wipe them/clean them, etc. hangs from end bar on our barn chute we use when doctoring them, has a pvc top with holes for liquid to seep down the cloth and can drench or just top wet cattle as needed. Never tried it on horses, but I guess it would work the same way on them...if they didn't crash through it at a run!


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

aoconnor1 said:


> I believe in old days, they dug a "trough" type trench that they filled with whatever they were dipping animals in, then ran the horses/cattle, etc. through the trough. It was pretty much like a reverse cattle ramp, it went down instead of up. Seems like an easy way to do it.
> 
> Also, we run cattle through drench cloth...like a car wash with the heavy hanging cloth strips, to fly wipe them/clean them, etc. hangs from end bar on our barn chute we use when doctoring them, has a pvc top with holes for liquid to seep down the cloth and can drench or just top wet cattle as needed. Never tried it on horses, but I guess it would work the same way on them...if they didn't crash through it at a run!


I was pretty young when my grandfather stopped dipping cattle and it was literally a man made dugout, with a steep slope, fenced in and an alley on either end I just remember it being a muddy, smelly mess and even as a child, I questioned the health benefits of the whole production.


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