Tactics for Tough Ticks

We've lived on this farm for over twenty years. In all of that time I've never seen a tick or heard of one anywhere in our neck of the woods. Western Washington just isn't known as tick country from anything I can tell. At least the kind that bother horses, that is.

That doesn't mean I don't keep my eyes open for the nasty little buggers. Who knows when they might find a way to creep into our lives and mess with our heads a bit while they're dining on our horses.................right??

Eastern Washington on the other hand is tick country. The insects prefer the hot dry climate that side of the Cascade Mountains provides. On the occasion I've taken Arabian horses to that side of the mountains I've paid special attention for sign of the nasty little creatures.

I have to admit in the middle of winter (I realize it is supposed to be spring but it's definitely still acting like winter here) the last think I expected to find on one of my horses was a tick. But guess what, that's exactly what I found on Dandy's shoulder last week.

At first I thought it was fungus. I've certainly been battling that kind of health issue with my Arabian horses for a considerable part of this winter. With the moist, windy, cold temperatures the climate has been particularly kind to the kinds of fungus that plague horses.

This raised up tuft of hair looked just like another lesion of fungus ready to pop exposing the usual gray skin that tells of its existence. Only scrapping at it with my fingernail when the hair flaked off what was exposed was a rounded, red ugly something or other I didn't expect.

Having never actually seen a tick on a horse before I really didn't know for sure so I called for Richard. With one glance he confirmed my suspicion, poor Dandy definitely had a tick embedded in his shoulder and not just any tick, this was one hurken mother, I can tell you.

After some work, Richard extricated the thing from Dandy's flesh. Then we treated the sore and dusted the horse looking carefully for anymore of the nasty buggers.

But that's not the end of this tick story. Yesterday I found two more of the blood sucking creatures. This time on Dandy's head (which Richard tells me in where they usually start their infestation on a horse.). One was right in a crease at the base of Dandy's ear. The other was embedded in his forelock.

I've checked out my others horses. So far not one of them has been found with a tick. I can't even imagine where these ticks could be coming from since they're just not known in this part of the country.

Well, actually, the more I think about it, the more I suspect that hay we received because of flooding damage on our farm? That hay came from eastern Washington and ticks have been known to travel in hay.

That hay is stored right over Dandy's stall. None of the other horses are positioned with the hay overhead like that. If the ticks were in the hay, they could fall right down onto poor Dandy. Since that's my only theory, I'm going to have to figure out how to "treat" this source to get rid of the ticks.

The hay is nearly gone. But even at that, the loft will have to be treated as a precautionary measure. The problem is so many insecticides are now banned finding something to kill these ticks could be a real chore. Any suggestions would certainly be appreciated! In the meantime Dandy seems none the worse for wear although his shoulder is still sore and he's pretty cranky about having that ear touched. Poor Boy!

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