It’s a jungle out there, and your pasture is no exception. There are a number of flying, biting, and crawling things that can get to your horse. Some are easy to deal with, some can be fatal. Here’s my best advice based on my experience at Rancho Tranquilo. Ticks There are so many different kinds of ticks here that you might not even recognize them on your horse. When I got my first horse here, I was stumped by a 2-inch diameter light tan scabby looking area under my horse’s leg. Imagine my horror when I learned that patch was actually a well-packed group of about 200 tick bodies all bunched up together. Are you kidding me? You can control ticks on your horse but it will take persistence and diligence in the beginning. (Note: If your horses are in a pasture with cows, tick removal will be a lot more difficult unless you treat the cows, too.) To start, you’ll need a few products, all of which are easily available and very inexpensive. • Go to the vet store and ask for a bottle of “Garrapatacida,” which is tick poison. (“Garrapata” is the Spanish word for tick.) The poison is a little bottle of clear liquid. Get yourself a small glass bottle with a wide mouth, pour about a ¼ teaspoon of garrapatacida into the bottle, and fill the bottle about halfway with water. The liquid will turn milk-colored. Keep this little bottle in your barn with your grooming supplies. • Go to the grocery store and buy a tube of Clover brand manteca (lard), found in the vegetable oil section. You want the solid, Crisco-style of Clover, not the liquid product. • Go to the pharmacy and ask for “guantes” or gloves. You can buy very thin rubber surgical gloves individually or by the box. They are very handy for dealing with ticks, especially if you’re a bit squeamish about touching them. First you will want to remove as many ticks from your horse as possible. This might take a few sessions. Ticks don’t “stick” to a horse like they do with dogs, and they tend to “pop off” much easier with no imbedded head. The key to tick removal is this: EVERY time you remove a tick from your horse, drop it in the bottle of poison. (Remember that any tick you drop on the floor becomes 1000 more ticks fairly quickly. ) If you are diligent about it, you can eventually eliminate most of the ticks on your farm, but it will take some time. Ticks on the body will be easy to spot. Be sure to check under your horse’s legs as far back as he’ll let you, under his belly, and on the neck under the mane. Next run your fingers through his forelock, feeling for “bumps.” With practice (and you’ll have plenty) you’ll begin to recognize a tick by touch alone. Check through the entire mane, feeling with your fingers and removing ticks as you find them. Then check the sides of the tail along the hairline, working your way down to the end of the fleshy part of the tail. Ears are a common place for bad tick infestations, but luckily it’s the easiest location to control. Get your surgical glove on, scoop up about a teaspoon of Clover brand lard, and smear it inside the ear about once a week. Use enough to put a good coating of lard down inside the ear, and all the way up to the tip. Ticks do not like the smell of Clover brand for some reason, and they will stay out of your horse’s ears if Clover is in there. Finally, don’t forget to remove all the ticks from your horse’s anus. This is soft, sensitive flesh and it’s in a rather tricky place to get to. Most horses are happy to have the ticks removed and will lift their tail and stand quietly while you do it. If your horse is skittish about this area, have a friend back him up to the stall door and stand on the other side of it, so that if he kicks, he gets the door and not you. You can also have a strong friend lift and hold one back leg in the air while you remove the ticks from under his tail. It’s almost impossible for a horse to kick you if he’s only standing on one back leg. If you’re removing a lot of ticks from your horse, be sure to spray the ground afterwards with a bit of garrapatacida mixed with water. This will kill whatever ticks you may have accidently dropped. I also recommend getting a little-known product called Ticked-Off. This is simply a little plastic teaspoon with a very effective notch cut into it. This amazing little invention lets you scoop up the ticks without touching them, catches their writhing little bodies in the spoon section, and lets you easily dump the tick into your handy jar of poison. ( www.tickedoff.com ) If you’re at all squeamish about handling tick bodies, this little device will save you and it’s only about $4. I was able to eliminate all the ticks from my farm by following these methods. It took about two years, however, so be patient and don’t give up. It is possible, and your horses will thank you for your efforts. Vampire Bats Probably one of the grosser members of the bat family, these pesky little guys bite your horse in places where they can’t be reached -– behind the front leg, on the back of the neck, on the tips of the ears, etc. You’ll notice a coagulated bloody trail on your horse in the morning. That’s the results of a vampire bat bite. Vampire bats come back to the same place over and over again. When they bite, they drink the horse’s blood and pee at the same time. The urine marks the spot for the bat, and allows him to come back the next night and find the same spot to feed again. Go to the vet store and ask for “Vampirisan” which is a small jar containing a pink, Vaseline-like substance. It is relatively inexpensive. A small jar will last you quite a long time. When your horse has been bitten by a vampire bat, do the following: • Clean the area of the bite with alcohol very thoroughly. Remove all traces of blood and bat pee to eliminate the odor that marks the spot for the bat’s return. • In the late afternoon or early evening, put a tablespoon-sized smear of Vampirisan over the original bat bite. (This is another great use for those surgical gloves, to avoid getting the poison on your fingers.) The bat will come back to the original location of the bite, find the Vampirisan, eat it, and die (somewhere else, thankfully). You may have to do this a couple of nights in a row to get all the bats, but generally once you kill them, they won’t come back for months. Other Parasites There are a lot of other internal parasites that can affect your horse’s health and digestion. Your best defense is offense: treat your horse for internal parasites regularly and watch for signs of infestation. A product called Invermectina is the generally accepted wormer for horses. It controls a wide range of internal parasites. To treat your horse, buy a tube of “Invermectina” from the vet store. It comes in a syringe with a small spout where the needle would go. Simply insert the spout into a corner of your horse’s mouth and push the plunger to squirt the paste directly into his mouth. You should worm your horse about every three months. If your horse is getting silver-dollar sized red weepy sores that won’t heal, he probably has another type of internal parasite. I’m not sure what bug causes these sores, but you can get a bottle of liquid invermectina, and use a syringe to squirt it on the sore. You don’t want to use this too often, but I have found it to be the only thing that stops the ”red weepy sore” bug. Snakes There are many poisonous snakes in Costa Rica. The most common is the fer-de-lance, called “terciopelo” in Costa Rica. If your horse is bit by a snake, he will appear lethargic, hanging his head, perhaps shaking uncontrollably or laying down. Check his legs, nose and underbelly for two small holes close together, oozing blood. If you think your horse has been bitten, call the vet IMMEDIATELY. If treated early enough, it may be possible to save your horse’s life, depending upon how much venom was injected by the snake. Sometimes there is nothing you can do and your horse will die. Unfortunately snake bites are rather common in Costa Rica, so always keep your vet’s emergency number handy, just in case. There is no anti-venom that you can buy and administer yourself in an emergency. You will need your vet.