to drink blood from the host animal. The lice live on the skin in the hair coat and reproduce by laying eggs on the shafts of hair.
Pediculosis is more prevalent in weather and in individuals with long, thick, woolly coats. Poor grooming practices and poor nutrition may increase the load of the parasitic infection. Pediculosis is transmitted through direct contact with affected individuals or through contact with infected fomites. Lice can live without a host for up to fourteen days making environmental transmission possible. The most apparent clinical sign of pediculosis is intense causing infected individuals to rub, itch, and even self-mutilate. Alopecia and excoriation may occur as a result of persistent itching. Scale, crust and lichenification of the skin may occur in areas where the infestation is concentrated. In severe infestations individuals may lose weight regardless of feed intake and some may become if the infestation is prolonged and severe. In most cases of pediculosis infestation eggs are visible on the shafts of body hairs as tiny yellow dots. Lice eggs are commonly referred to as .
Diagnosis is made through clinical signs and symptoms as well as by the isolation of adult lice or nits in fur.
Treatment is the topical application of delousing powder or other topical insecticide. Generally, such treatments need to be repeated at least twice, two weeks apart, to ensure complete parasite removal. Ivermectin is also effective.
Prevention is through the isolation of infected individuals and through proper grooming and feeding techniques.
Trombiculiasis Trombiculiasis is commonly called “chiggers”, “heel bugs” or “harvest mites”, and refers to a infestation.
Mites are blood sucking ectoparasites that are related to ticks and spiders. The species of mite responsible for trombiculiasis is called Trombidium spp.
This mite infests horses during its larval stage. The larvae attach to the host then bite the flesh of the host animal. The saliva of the larvae contains hydrolytic enzymes that break down the tissue and allow the larva access to the host’s blood supply. The hydrolysis of tissues causes an inflammatory reaction that acts to increase the blood flow to the feeding site of the larva. Horses that are exercised in, live in or are turned out in fields or wooded areas are more likely to be infected by trombiculiasis than those kept in barns and arenas as transmission is environmental. Infestation tends to occur in late summer & fall.
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