> "In Maine they're called midges - my horse is allergic to them, too - on > chondroitin, which has helped immensely, and may get a half dose of > Wistrol (sp?) per Eleanor when my vet comes. Without this, she tears > herself to pieces."
I know I sound so poor people probably think i shouldnt even have horses when i say stuff like this--- but having a horse with SE became very very frustrating for me in that if you just look at the posts in the last week alone, just add up how much it would cost to try every item suggested. and I was buying them ALL and the expense was just getting astronomical and some would work ok, some not at all, fly sheets alone were running me into the poor house, and I would order the right size and when it would come it would be the right size but for a tall horse and teev would get his legs hung in it, one of those was 130 bucks... the armorall bug buster which worked great btw but hung to the ground.and then like me, with other horses, i started realizing all my horse money was going to one, which was ok for a long time, then I started getting a second horse with a problem, my jas, and his mystery thinness, and that just put me over the top. I can afford to keep the number of horses I have well, I can afford one horse with a constant expensive (to me) problem, but I could not afford the constant continuous stream of what works for you not working for me. It was helpful when someone told me what works for SE in one area may not work in another--- there are over 4,000 species of culicoides in the us and around 1500 species in fla alone. Horses are expensive, the sport of rich men and kings as my vet says, and a horse with any type of health issue is exponentially more expensive! I guess I am saying this to vent my frustration but also, if there is anyone else out there trying to grasp straws for a solution, ask your vet, people in your area with icelandics if there are any, what works for them... because some things people swear by did not even make a dent to me. Actually the thing that made a nice dent was powdered garlic. Also insecticides that contain phenol whatever along with butylisp whatever work best for me, but not others... anyway, just a vent I guess! but when each 12 oz bottle is 17 or 20 bucks and doesnt even make as much of a notable difference than say, OFF repellant, it would make me so depressed. That would have been 17 bucks I could have spent on garlic powder! Janice
