Horse fly collars, do they work?

[shelleyd2008]

My dad's horses are just covered with flies!! Their poor faces

Do the fly collars work, or would a spray or something else (like the masks) be a better idea?

 

[pamperedpoultry]

Quote:
never tried the collars, heard other people say that they dont work. Fly spray is like water.. Only thing we've found that works is the masks. We have one horse that will take off halters, and masks of the other horses so they don't work to well for us..LOL

 

[shelleyd2008]

Only one of his has a halter, the other 2 can take them off. Hmmm....so that probably wouldn't work either, huh?

 

[shelleyd2008]

I was looking at some online, and it seems most of them only cover the eye area? Dad has a 'pony' that always gets sores on her nose from them, what can I do about this area?

 

[patandchickens]

sores on the nose are often something else, like sunburn (does the pony have pink skin and/or white hair on her nose?)

The long-nose fly masks are good. I am a big fly mask fan. You do have to check them daily, clean as necessary, and a few horses have trouble keeping them on (generally b/c of unhelpful pasturemates), but on the whole fly masks are a very good thing.

Fly spray helps too, but more for some kinds of flies than others. If you find you have to apply it daily -- e.g. for mosquitos -- use one of the water based cheapie formulas like Bronco or Kentucky Somethingorother.

Good luck, fortunately fly season will be over soon,

Pat

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Yes, thank goodness for that! Dad moved his horses to a new pasture a few days ago, and when I walked down to get my son off the bus, those poor things looked like they had black faces from all the flies!!

The one that gets sores on her nose is pure white, so that's probably it. I've noticed that her muzzle looks sunburned sometimes.

I found some masks on horse.com that don't need a halter to attach, I think I'll get some for them. Last year I bought them new shoes, so this year it will be apparel.

 

[shelleyd2008]

The one with the white hair is a large pony/small horse. I have no idea how many hands she is. The smallest size mask they have says for arabian? Would that fit her? He also has 2 very big QH, so would they need the medium or large size mask?
http://www.horse.com/Defender-Fly-Mask-Tan-BUM17.html

 

[patandchickens]

You can put on white zinc ointment, same as old-style for humans, to prevent sunburn on pink noses. It will get a bit of dirt stuck to it but Oh Well. or the long-nose fly masks sometimes create enough shade to minimize sunburn - it depends how long your horse's head is in relation to the mask.

What matters isn't the horse's height, it's the size of the head from ears down through jowls, which unfortunately can take a bit of trying on different sizes to figure out what a particular horse needs. I have a pony that takes an extra large, and a 16+hh Tb that is a bit swimming in a regualr horse size. You just have to try 'em, sorry -- and it will vary between brands too.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[pamperedpoultry]

Oh I just thought of something that does work better than fly spray is the Avon SOS (skin so soft)

 

[shelleyd2008]

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I had seen that somewhere, you mix it 3 parts SOS with 1 part water? I was wondering how well it did work. I suppose you'd have to reapply if they got wet?