Worming

lupinfarm

Loving the herd life
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
1,262
Reaction score
5
Points
114
Location
CANADA
I have no idea :idunno but our vet has advised us to worm with ivermectin I believe it was 4 times a year? ... including a botplus wormer just after the first frost.

Darn I can't remember................................

I have it written down somewhere LOL I know my girls were wormed recently with a wormer to kill Roundworm since we had roundworm in the dogs.
 

lupinfarm

Loving the herd life
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
1,262
Reaction score
5
Points
114
Location
CANADA
Oh Oh Oh and the reasoning behind the little amount of wormer is that neither of my horses currently leave the property at all. Once Mylie starts getting ridden and worked and such she'll be wormed more often as will Luna who will come into contact with her.
 

RayNC

Exploring the pasture
Joined
Jun 14, 2009
Messages
17
Reaction score
0
Points
22
Location
Rocky Point NC
There is a chart provided by the company that makes the dewormer
Quest/Ivermectin etc....
It should be hanging on the shelf right there with the product.
Its a seasonal deworming according to what bugs are out there in your area. Ask the clerk to find it for you.
We stick to this rotation because here in NC we can have mosquitos/flies year round. We deworm about every 8 weeks.
 

unionwirewoman

Just born
Joined
Feb 14, 2010
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
6
According to the news letter my vet just sent out to me.....some horses are more resistant to certain types of worms than others , depending on area . My vet strongly suggests taking 2 fecal balls per horse in to see which worming medicine is effective . Now , normally I don't adhere to all of this technology , but it seems as if in the long run , it would help to know what type of worms are prevalent in which horses , and which types of worming medicine are ineffective . I sure hate wasting money...and that's exactly what most everyone is doing if they don't know what type of worms their horse has , or what type of worming medicine they are resistant to . Just my 2 cents . On a side note...I was always told to rotate wormers....I was told every 3 months for different worms....makes more sense to me now that I've been informed about immunities to certain wormers . As humans , we become immune to certain medicines also....why not animals ?
 

WallTenters

Chillin' with the herd
Joined
Feb 15, 2010
Messages
32
Reaction score
0
Points
27
Location
Oregon, USA
Parasites have not been known to grow resistance to ivermectin, so rotating worming medications isn't totally necessary anymore.

There are a few other products on the market that have not found resistance from the parasites we deal with, but I still think ivermectin is the best because it covers the most parasites and the no-lable tubes (still 1.87%) are very very affordable (maybe $2-3 ea!). You can spend more for the more expensive ones if you want, that's fine, but they all have the same percentage of ivermectin so it's labeling. We never ever worm with Quest - terribly ineffective, expensive, and has been known to kill horses. You would have to shove safeguard or ivermectin down a horse's throat for about a month to see any overdose effects.

For a controlled herd that doesn't travel or have incoming horses, 2x a year (after the last frost of spring, after the first frost of fall) is very effective. This plays into the parasite's natural cycle. If you have trouble with a specific parasite, like tapeworms, target them. Otherwise, 2x a year works well for closed herds as maintenance.

However, most people don't have a perfectly controlled herd. The last thing you want is for a parasite infestation to grow and take over.

We worm 4x per year, with ivermectin. We also use a tapeworm wormer for safe measure once a year, just because we've heard of folks about 100m east of us getting tapeworms and we worry. We camp a ton, constantly ride in groups, trailer to friend's for a weekend, etc. etc. so our horses are exposed to everything. We have never found a single adult worm in any of our horse's droppings, and our fecal tests always come back clean and normal.

One of our older geldings we had to "power worm" with safeguard two years ago. He was leased (and obviously not dewormed) and had a case of blood worms (strongyls) when we got him back, so the power worming kills adults, eggs, you name it. It's 2x daily dose, 5 days in a row. We buy the big tubes of safeguard meant for cattle (same chemical and everything, just the packaging is different) to do this, as it's about half the cost. You can buy the special gun for it, but we just use another worming tube and push it out that way, filling it into an empty horse worming tube to make it easier to administer.

We will power worm any new horse we get from now on, or any horse coming back from lease - dealing with the blood worms was terrible, he lost a ton of weight, had multiple hoof problems, was growing and then shedding hair all summer.. it sucked! By the time we realized what had happened, it was taking its toll on him. Within two weeks of power worming he looked so much better and had put a ton of weight back on.

Hope the novel helped!
 
Top