Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone. I am about to do something I've wanted to do for my entire life (I am 23 now)... get my first horse. We live on a nice old farm with a few barns, and we are renovating one of them to accomodate horses.
The horses I am looking into getting: one is a registered paint mare, the other is a really charming mustang mare.
I have a really stupid question. Can horses contract fleas or lice, and if so, is it common? I recently went through a bout of fleas with my indoor house cat, and I bought Advantage, and it worked wonders. But I would wake every morning and have a TON of flea bites on my legs before I treated the cat (now, I have been bite free since the day I used Advantage.)
So I geuss that after having fleas so bad, and nearly getting eaten alive by them, you may see why I am so concerned here. So you mustang/horse owners: do you ever notice fleas or other buggery creatures living on your horse? And if so, do you use any sort of product to guard against these nasty parasites?

Yes horses can get fleas and lice. They usually dont have much problem with fleas as the fleas prefer other blood to horse blood but lice are a different matter. Horses do get lice fairly easily and it can be a pain in the ***** when they do but it is easily treated and isnt all that common. The good news is that the lice that are on horses do not like humans! I own 8 horses currently and have owned horses all my life and have only dealt with lice a very few times and have never had a problem with fleas on the horses, but have had them on the dogs and cats before. Ticks are another nasty parasite that feed on horses, if you have tick problems there you might want to be on the look out for ticks on the horses. There are chemical treatments out there to treat problems as they arise. Good luck with your horses. Do you know how to ride already or will this be a whole new ball game, so to speak?
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The one and only truly wild ride!

I can ride fairly well; I know more about western riding than english, and will be focusing more on western anyway. It just seems more "me."
I have never owned a horse of my own, but I am thinking by next spring, we will get two. We want the winter to start slowly accumulating all of the supplies, tack, etc that we'll need. This is all really exciting, since I have wanted horses since before I could walk!

Fleas generally aren't attracted to horses. In fact, when I was a kid, an old farmer used to tell me to let dogs sleep on used horse blankets to get rid of fleas...doesn't really work but the theory at the time was fleas don't like the smell of horse sweat. In truth, fleas are somewhat species specific, and even though they will bite humans, it's only because we're convenient when they don't have another host around!

Lice on the other hand can be a problem, but are relatively easily treated with Ivermectin. Again, they are host-specific meaning the lice the thrive on horses don't thrive on humans. However, they are also very contagious so if you end up with a horse with lice, you will want to keep them well quarantined until you get it all cleared up!

Good luck And remember, questions aren't stupid!!! It's how we learn!
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PH Cody
HorseHobbyist Site Coordinator