Horseflies

I hate it when this happens. Only 10 days ago I applied Equispot to Baasha, thinking we were safe, even though I'd run out of fly spray. I see now that it wasn't enough. I hate to feel like the bad horse owner, but that's how I feel today.



I check him every day, but I didn't notice it soon enough. Then I wondered if any of my previous barn owners would have noticed it at all. I'm not sure I would check the underside of every horse every day, if I were a barn owner.

His sheath is swollen and hard from horsefly bites. I noticed two of them on his sheath recently, but I didn't realize it was a problem. I had covered it in desitin as a barrier, but that didn't last.



You might think I'm freaking out about nothing major, but you can see from this perspective (other side) that it is not normal. Oh --- should I have put a PG 13 label on this post? I've been in Germany so long I don't know.



My poor baby! At first I thought OMGOSH what if he can't pee. OK, you're probably laughing cuz it's not that bad, but I'm paranoid about sheath issues gone wrong and those poor geldings who get all infected. So I locked him in the stall and waited 5 minutes. Like magic, he peed, and for the first time ever, I wasn't annoyed (cuz the door is always open and he could go outside, but noooooooo....).

But what now. I turned on a kettle of water and called the vet.

I didn't know the word for sheath. I said, "You know, geldings and stallions have this, but it's not a penis, it's ....exterior?"

The lady called it the German word for "hose." *lol*

I asked her to ask the vet what I should do. She said come in and buy some fly spray for 43 Euros. ACK!

I'm contacting Farnam as I type this. Thankfully Farnam has a dealer in Germany, and although I cannot get my preferred Flysect Super7, I can get Repel X. (Does that work?) But guess what it costs? 45€ plus 5 for shipping. Agh. But at least that's the concentrate, and I try to always buy concentrate so I can mix it myself and save money. But as a spoiled American, I'm used to buying a pint of Flysect concentrate for 20 American dollars.

So what did I do about poor Baasha? First I washed him with Betadine and warm water. Then I rinsed and rinsed with a separate clean wet cloth or two and he kept looking at me like, Geez, enough! Then I did what the vet tech said to do, I put Fenistil all over it. Fenistil is what I got at the pharmacy for my horrible ant bite reactions (of which I have 4 right now).



Then I threw down a bale of hay to keep him occupied, and put up a fly catcher in the stall. However, there are no flies in the stall. They cannot find their way in! The grape vine is too thick, and with the door closed, it is fly free. Whew.

A couple hours later I put on some Dermamycin, which is hydrocortisone. You can see that I'm almost out of Desitin. I sure wish I could get Desitin here in Germany. (Of these 4 products you can spot the German ones by their XXS size.)



I then put on latex gloves, covered them in personal lubricant, and ...PG 13.

I put baby oil around his dock to make his tail less itchy.



I took off his fly mask and washed his face with a clean wet cloth. He thought I was trying to kill him. He really hates moisture of any kind. It's 35 freaking degrees out (95F)-- doesn't a wet cloth feel good? I think so (especially a *frozen* wet cloth, but that's me). I gave him several fresh carrots in apology.

I also washed his tail cuz it was dirty with Desitin, and cleaned and scrubbed his frogs.



But I'm so glad his eyes are good. Last July he spent the entire month in a purposefully-darkenened stall, because of his horrible eye infection.



We never had horseflies back in Seattle - at least, not this variety. I didn't even know what they were. These will bite and draw blood from horse and human. They are long and grey with huge eyes - nasty!

Tomorrow morning I will reapply Equispot on his ventral side, and he will be brought in during the hottest part of the day. He will enjoy that - he loves his stall.

A recent veterinary study proved that horseflies prefer darker, reflective coat colors in horses - gray is the least attractive to flies. HM!