flys

Question
QUESTION: I have 5 horses on my farm. Out of the 5 horses, my one quarter horse seems to get attacked by flys the most. During the summer, she has lumps all over her neck/chest. They dont seem to itch, but they just look bad. Some days are worse than others.
Are these fly bites or what else could they be? If they are fly bites, why don't any of the other horses have them? what can I do about it??? Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi JoAnne, It sounds to me like it's more of an allergy than actual fly bites.  I have horses who come in who seem to have these bumps covering them also.  I had a mare who had it so bad I had to call the vet as the bumps were causing her to swell along her eyes and jaw.  The vet said it was an allergy, which I figured, it was just alarming because her face had swelled up I was afraid it could effect her breathing.  So as long as it's not around her face and effecting her breathing my suggestion would be to wash your horse in an iodine bath or any anti-fungal/anti-bacterial bath just to sooth the effected area.  It could be flies, something she's eating, or shavings that she could be allergic to.  From my experience this seems to be more cosmetic than harming, however they could be itchy to the horse.  If your horse comes in and is really swelled up I would contact a vet, more than likely they will just give you dexamethasone injections which is a steroid to get rid of the inflammation.  Good luck, Jessica

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi,Ya one may show up on her face every once in awhile, but they don't seem to bother her at all. They do look bad, though, (for showmanship and such) so is ther anything I should give her or spray on her or something to make them go down??? And as far as the iodine bath, do you mean just wiping her down with iodine or betadine??

Answer
If you have a show coming up, then you could call your vet and get some dex. from him, put her on it for a couple of days and they should go away.  I think you can even put it in their feed so you don't have to actually inject anything.  As for the iodine scrub, I mean just an iodine shampoo scrub, you can get this at your feed store usually for a Tractor Supply type place.  You can probably get it at a pharmacy.  Any shampoo that is anti-fungal/anti-bacterial will do.  I don't know of anything you can put on it to make them go down, however you could try some benadryl cream or any kind of allergy topical cream, it would just take a lot of it if she were covered in them.  Good luck, Jessica