Swimming with Piranhas? horse story

[4hooves&featheredfriends]

So my Warmblood X loves the water, so I decided to fence in our pond for water and entertainment. Today my niece goes to get my boy for her lesson and he is up to his belly standing in the pond. (I know I need pictures).

She brings him up and starts grooming him realizing that the inside of his leg is bleeding heavily near his underarm. The blood has stained his white coronet and on the other leg blood is dripping down the front of his leg. Then we look to a hind leg and it looks like he has several tiny punctures on the inside of his leg.

What is he swimming with pirahnas in New Hampshire? At first I thought he got scraped up by twigs or grasses in the water and then my niece mentions she had flicked a leech from his chest - then it all made sense. He had a little abrasion from bug bites under his forelimb and the leeches were attracted to the flesh.

It took forever for the bleeding to stop, she rode, we put him back out and 20 minutes later he was back in the pond. When I went to get him there were five fat leeches sucking from the same spots.

Oooh, no more swimming for Max.

 

[Chicks_N_Horses]

Woweee - My horses love water and we take them down to the water alot for swimming...never had that happen thank goodness!!!

 

[4hooves&featheredfriends]

Here is the boy...I will get a shot of him in the pond if he is foolish enough to go in again.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Pike or muskie probably.

Although, supposedly someone found a piranha in Elbow Lake--a small but public access lake in NE Michigan. I haven't heard if it's actually true or not though.

4 piranhas have been found in MI lakes ... that have been confirmed.

 

[redhen]

Aww! poor horsie! Can you kill off the slugs in the pond somehow?

 

[4hooves&featheredfriends]

I was researching what I can do without harming the water, as the ducks (my 3 bluey runners) and horses drink and swim in the water.

Cornell offered a suggestion- Take small coffee cans and puncture small nail holes in the bottom of the container. Nails go in toward the lid so that the rough edges reduce - the chew and "xxew" behavior.

Place a hole in each side of the can near the lid and thread a baling twine through leaving a good length for a "fishing line". Place a small amount of ground beef in the can and fasten the lid with duct tape.

Toss the can into the water a couple of feet from shore so that animals can't bother it. Check the can, emptying the leeches into a bucket with a strong saline solution.

Bleach won't do b/c of the wildlife in the pond - birds, ducks, turtles, salamanders- horses, etc.

 

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

Don't ducks eat leeches? Otherwise you might consider stocking the pond with some catfish or trout, I KNOW they eat leeches. And also, then you will a be able to go fishing anytime you want.

 

[redhen]

Yeah..catch them (somehow), and feed them to the ducks! They'll luv ya!