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Basically you can find all these information online.. whilst I was doing my little research on them, I thought I’d summarize it, save you all the looking up.

What are horse flies?

They are also known as forest flies or deer flies, range from 30mm – 60mm in length. They are very noisy during flight. If you are bitten, it would be by a female horse fly, because they require a blood meal for reproduction. They have tiny, serrated mandibles which they use to rip and slice flesh apart, thus the bite can be very painful, and last over a few days. After the bite, the affected site will develop into a red lump within minutes, it can be itchy, hot, and painful.

How do they look?

                      
                                  No! this is not a horse fly                                 This looks more like it lol

How to treat the bite?

You can just leave it and let it run its course - the symptoms mentioned above can last for a few days.. then slowly settles over weeks.. or treat the symptoms with Antihistamine cream or tablets to relief the itch and reduce the swelling by suppressing histamine release. or low potency topical steroid i.e. hydrocortisone 1% to reduce the inflammation. Im not very keen on selling the steroid cream, especially if the wound looks nasty, and a definate no no if the wound is slightly opened or raw, it will make it worse.

I recommended the previous customer to get some non-drowsy antihistamine, cetirizine is my favourite one to sell. Piriton (chlorphenamine),the traditional, drowsy antihistamine are most effective, but of course it can be  a pest if they have to drive or work or even if they are on holiday.

When to refer?

When there are signs of infection – very painful, hot, red and produces pus. I would also refer if they have used the counter treatments and still no improvements after a couple of days.