Tabla de contenidos para Practical Horseman Extra Volume 15 en Practical Horseman

Your horse is plainly not himself. He’s gone from perky to plodding in work and he flinches and pins his ears when you groom him. Last week he seemed a little off in front. That lameness improved, but now his hocks seem stiff. What’s going on? A tiny tick could be the cause of his problems. Ticks, blood-feeding relatives of spiders and mites, can transmit serious diseases through their bites. In this article Linda Mittel, DVM, senior extension associate with Cornell University’s Animal Health Diagnostic Center in Ithaca, New York, helps explain what you need to know. Horses are susceptible to two serious tick-borne diseases that are widespread in the United States, Dr. Mittel says—Lyme disease and equine granulocytic anaplasmosis. We’ll cover both as well as equine piroplasmosis, which is…

If you live in blacklegged tick country, take these steps to reduce your horse’s risk: Apply fly repellents that contain permethrins, which can discourage ticks from attaching to your horse. Use these products whenever ticks are active—during early spring, fall and winter warm spells—not just when flies are bothersome. Groom your horse daily with special attention to top tick-bite zones like the base of the mane and tail and around the ears, throatlatch and belly. If you find a tick, use tweezers to grasp it right at the skin where its mouth-parts are embedded. Pull gently up to remove the tick and then kill it. Make ticks unwelcome in your horse’s turnout space. Get rid of their favorite hangouts by keeping the grass mowed, clearing brush and trimming low branches.…

Lyme disease, anaplasmosis and piroplasmosis are the only tick-borne diseases known to affect U.S. horses. But that doesn’t mean no others exist—only that none have been discovered and reported. Blacklegged ticks harbor different species of Borrelia that may turn out to be associated with disease in horses, says Linda Mittel, DVM, senior extension associate with Cornell University’s Animal Health Diagnostic Center. And they’re not the only disease carriers—dog ticks, lone star ticks and other tick species carry various infections. In all, ticks are known to transmit more than a dozen diseases to people, including tularemia and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. “There have been no reports of these diseases affecting horses and horses may not be susceptible to the organisms that cause them. But with improved diagnostic tests, we may be…