regular wormings or fecals

[rodeoratdogs]

I have always wormed my horses every 2 months but recently after having the vet out for a yearling gelding we had JUST bought because he was colicing from being so infested with round worms, I was told different. Of couse he had 2 be on a deworming scedule every 2 weeks for 4 more wormings but then when I asked my vet if I should now just put him on a regular 2 month scedule he told me no, that instead I should do regular fecal exams on my horses and only worm if parasite eggs are detected. Now that makes sense to me, but the cost of a fecal exam is about $25 and a tube of wormer $3-$10 so as far as cost wize it's a no brainer. But with some research what I understand is the the Vets are a bit worried that the parasites will become resistant to our dewormer's if we overuse them. I live in WA state USA and am interested if any of you in other parts of the country and world are hearing the same advice from your Vet's, to do fecals and only worm when necessary........There is before and after pics of our gelding on our website if anybody is interested to see, he looks WAAAAAY better now.
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[Pat Sunstrom]

Good timing on this post!
I was about to do my 'drop' tests here before doing my bulk buy of wormer for the season. I will certainly ask the vet about the resistance issue. I have thought about that. My horses are pretty much 'at home' so I always hate to over do anything they really don't need.
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Patricia
"The further backward you can look the further forward you are likely to see"~Sir Winston Churchill

[rodeoratdogs]

Please let me know what he says, I am definately interested, I have also learned after doing some online research after talking with my vet that older horses have much more resistance to worms than young horses. that being said, one would never want to assume a horse didn't have worms because it was older but I'm thinking maybe we should not assume that they do either.The daily dewormers are not such a good idea after all because the worms can get more of a resistance being the horses are fed the wormer every day. I never did feed those, it just didn't seem right to me to feed my horses a poison every day.
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[WTBleep]

My vet was always a fan of the every 2 months schedule but started recommending rotational worming a few years back and this year he began to endorse what I've been doing forever- worming only 3-4 times a year, doing fecals at the end of summer to make sure we're not infested and to select the proper wormer, picking the stalls, paddocks and pastures religiously and composting the manure before spreading it.

I've not been a fan of the daily wormers because we use our manure in our garden. Not sure how much residue persists. For 3 days after we worm, we put that manure in a separate pile that only goes on the trees.

I too picked up a long yearling who was infested and was given a panacur powerpack for 5 days- she came out of a rough herd living without much care and probably had never been wormed before. She was really skinny when I got her but after the powerpack and careful re-feeding she was putting on weight of 1-2 lbs a day for a couple of months.
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Appaloosa Whisperer

[rodeoratdogs]

Yes we to pick up our poop also, its one area that my husbands OCD comes in handy....lmao ! The worm eggs dislike compost heat, so its really good to compost the manure.
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[bullsie]

We were always advised to begin worming a horse at one month of age, worm every month till a year old and then put on an everyother month worming schedule - rotating wormers (and those need to be tailored according to the parasites and time of year). Since, we have added 'other' livestock for rotational

But there is a great deal of concern with worms getting resistent. Its being seen in other critters such as sheep and goat parasites. What the sheep/goat folks do is their own fecal exams. You may wish to check into that type of arrangement if you are unsure. Otherwise, keeping a strict worming schedule and you may think of getting fecal samples every 6 months to be sure.

[bullsie]

NOthing like not finishing a post!

Since, we have added 'other' livestock for rotational grazing.

[rodeoratdogs]

Yes my vet did say more frequently with young horses because they have no tolerance at all to parisites, but older horses have some resistance. That being said, I have always kept my horses on a regular deworming scedule, young and old so have never had a problem with horses I have raised. The one we bought was the one we had a problem with since he was a young horse obviously not kept on a regular deworming scedule. One important thing we did learn is that when you get a horse that you suspect is wormy always consult your vet before you deworm. I know the panacure power pacs are popular, and I'm sure very affective but we gave our gelding only a 600lb dose of Zimecterin and he coliced not because he had so many round worms, but because he had so many worms die at once, the dead worms can form a ball and your horse can become impacted from the ball of dead worms. My vet said that whenever you have a highly infested horse just give them a 1/2 dose every 2 weeks for 4 doses and then you can go to a regular dose. That way you kill off the worms slowly and the horse can pass them without getting sick.
I have always have plenty of different kinds of wormers on hand and keep everybody written on the calender, but I think I will worm a little less oftened and do a couple of fecals a year. WTBleep your plan sounds reasonable.
Here are before and after pics of our gelding, first pic is the day we got him 10-30-09 and the second pic is 2-20-10
http://rodeoratdogs.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=72248679
http://rodeoratdogs.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=72248680

Alicia
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