Daily Dewormers

[dctrainingandlessons]

How many of you are using daily dewormers? I currently use it on two of my horses, and the other 3 are just dewormed every 2 months with a tube dewormer. Everyone I spoke to regarding the use of the daily dewormers told me (including my vet) that a horse on a daily dewormer will only need to be dewormed about 3 times a year with tube dewormer.

Now, the 3 horses that aren't on the daily dewormer (Strongid C2X) are fat and sassy with shiney coats and all around healthy. The other two are a bit ribby looking, and their coats don't have the same shine. I find I'm putting more and more feed into them to keep them at a good weight, which I'm still not happy with. So instead of deworming with the Strongid paste dewormer, this time I dewormed with ivermectin, a good dose, this just today. I plan to let the Strongid daily dewormer run out and at that time I don't plan to buy any more.

I can only suffice that my otherwise very healthy 2 horses that are on this deworming program are hard keepers because of the dewormer. Although I did stick to the strongid paste deworming, actually 4 times a year my thought is that the worms have immunity to the strongid used on it's own, in the daily and 4/times a year plan.

Another thing I deduced is that perhaps the daily dose eliminates some sort of healthy bacteria in the stomachs of my horses.. Any way I look at it, I've ruled out everything else as a cause and now the only other option I see is that this daily dewormer is causing my horses some sort of stress with the way they digest their meals.

Anyone have any experience or knowledge to pass along to me regarding the use of these daily deworming plans?

[Ryle]

It's true that with daily dewormers you only need to deworm twice a year with paste dewormers, typically spring and fall with either ivermectin/praziquantel or moxidectin praziquantel.

The things I can think of that might be causing your problem are:
1. You said you dewormed with pyrantel paste in the past, is that what you've been using for paste deworming along with the daily dewormer? If so, you are missing parasites by only using pyrantel salts. About 50% of farms tested have parasites that are resistant to the pyrantel paste dewormer which means that you also may not actually be killing even the parasites that pyrantel pastes are generally effective against.


2. You may also have parasites that are resistant to the pyrantel salts, most likely the paste (pyrantel pamoate) but also possibly the pyrantel tartrate that is the active ingredient in most daily dewormers. It would be wise to have a fecal egg count performed on the horses that are on the daily dewormer to see if that is the problem. Resistance to the daily dewormers isn't seen commonly at all, but it would be good to check just in case.

Why do you have only 2 horses on daily dewormers?
Did you deworm them with ivermectin or moxidectin the day before staring on the daily dewormers?

Cindy D.
Registered Veterinary Technician