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Gribblies - great name!

It could also be some other type of critter besides ticks.  Caisson  
will get "gribblies" with both tick and fly bites.

One thing I have found that helps is the Trail-Rite Magical Ointment.   
It seems to calm the irritation, and keep the gribblies from forming  
as badly.  It also seems to decrease the amount of hair that he loses  
to the bite.

I never thought about giving a tick bath -- how long does it last?  I  
only need the protection when I ride in the mountains.  He doesn't get  
them at the stable.


On Sep 3, 2009, at 9:00 AM, Diane Trefethen wrote:

> > Hi, Don.  Thanks so much for your response.  The stuff on my  
> > horse's front
> > pasterns is more like a resin rather than yellowish and sticky.   
> > Seems a bit
> > like hair gel that's been allowed to dry, and then some of the  
> > hairs are
> > stuck together in little hard-ish clumps.
>
> That could still be caused by ticks.  A horse that is sensitive to  
> tick saliva will produce a yellowish sticky ooze that dries and  
> hardens into what looks like what you are describing.  I call those  
> scabby thingies "gribblies".
>
> Your original description failed to make it clear whether the  
> "resin" was external or produced by your horse.  First you said it,  
> "looks like some type of plant sap" and then you said, "His skin has  
> definitely been irritated from something".  If you are dealing with  
> a plant's sap, it would not be likely for that sap to penetrate to  
> the skin over any sizable area.  On the other hand, if something is  
> irritating your horse and the "resin" is his reaction to that  
> irritation in its dried state, since the original ooze is FROM the  
> skin, it will likely be attached to or ON the skin.
>
> One of my horses is very sensitive to ticks and it amazes me that  
> come Fall, he starts showing signs of having been bitten when I  
> can't find a single tick on him.  The gribblies are there but the  
> ticks aren't.  Because he is so sensitive to the tick saliva, he  
> loses patches of hair in most of the places he gets bitten.
>
> One clue that it is probably not a contact irritant is that the  
> Micro Tek isn't working.  That product can't help with ticks because  
> the ticks aren't bothered by it.  It is an anti-bacteriological/ 
> fungicide, not an insecticide.
>
> Also, if there are other horses in the pasture and they do NOT show  
> signs of what your horse has, that heightens the probability that it  
> is ticks.  There are very few commonly found plants that produce a  
> severe allergic reaction in just some horses but the reaction to  
> tick bites ranges from nothing noticeable to grapefruit sized  
> pustules.
>
> So pursue whatever course you feel wise for an allergic reaction but  
> don't fully dismiss the possibility that it is ticks, or worse,  
> ticks AND something else that is making diagnosis difficult.
>
> I plan on giving my sensitive horse a tick bath as soon as he starts  
> showing signs that they are active.  If anyone has any favorites, I  
> would really appreciate your posting the brand names.  Many thanks :)


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