# How much wormer do you give a foal?



## targetsmom (Jul 17, 2009)

I did a forum search and found WHAT to give (Safeguard or Panacur) because they are gentle, and WHEN to give first dose (1 month of age is usual) but no one seemed to answer HOW MUCH to give. My vet is still working on it, but I thought I would ask here. Max is pretty tiny - his girth is 26 1/2 inches - and probably weighs less than 50 pounds but I suspect there is a minimum dose?

So - How much wormer DO you give to a foal??? Do you measure in terms of ccs or use the weight marks on the wormer tube? Do you use the regular wormer tube or put it in a syringe to give it to the foal?


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## WhiteTailsMinis (Jul 17, 2009)

Hi - what we did was take the wormer tube with the markings and squirted into a syringe (knowing the weight for that amount based on the mark). we then split that amount into small syringes until we got the 1/4 dosage.

Meaning our first mark was 300 on the actual tube. Then squirted it in the syringe and pushed the plunger to pack it. We noted the measurement on the syringe to see what we were starting with.

We then squirted HALF of that into a 2nd syringe repeating the process (spitting it in half into 3 and 4 syringes) knowing that we went from 300 to 150 to 75, then we adjusted as needed from there for each foal based on their weight. Another half split from the 75 weight syringe would be 37.5 lbs.

I've always heard you cannot overdose but not enough doesn't do any good. Don't know if there is any truth to that but that's what we go by.

Worked for us - be interested to see the replies and find an easier way. LOL

Yes, at that point we administered via the tiny syringe. We used Safeguard for the first wormings as it is more gentle for the foals. We worm foals every month and alternate the wormers based on the worming schedules.


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## targetsmom (Jul 17, 2009)

Thanks - that is helpful but interested in other responses.

All our horses are on daily wormer and my vet told me that the minimum dose for that was the 250 pound dose, so they all get that (or a bit more). That agrees with what you said about not enough wormer not doing any good. I am hoping that with everyone on Strongid, that the foal won't have a worm problem, but want to get him wormed anyway.


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## backwoodsnanny (Jul 17, 2009)

I was actually shocked when our foal developed colic like symptons at 3 weeks old and when vet came she said he had hyper gut sounds meaning too many she then said she was going to worm the foal and I said but his mom was wormed the day he was born she said she wanted to do it anyway.She used Strongid right out of the tube and wormed him at the 100 pound mark this foal probably weighed maybe 50 at the time if that. I have always been cautious about too much wormer but apparently that didnt apply this time as he was dosed at at least twice his weight. I was very surprised but he is fine so guess it was right.


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## chandab (Jul 17, 2009)

I just dewormed my filly a week ago, and did essentially what Whitetail farm did. Although, I just took the 300# dosage, transferred it to a syringe, noted how much it was in cc (it was 6 cc for 300# dosage for the dewormer I have), figured my filly was around 50# (she's still easier to pick-up than a sack of feed




) and gave her 1.5cc, so I still have 4.5cc in the little syringe for the next couple dosages. [since its safe wormer, I wasn't too worried that I gave her a little more than I intended. And, it never slowed her down, so must not have been too much.]

I don't know if their is an absolute minimum dosage with paste dewormers, as they are dosed by weight and mini foals are quite a bit smaller than the smallest dosage on wormer tubes (it was never a problem with my full-size foals, as they were close enough in weight to use the 300# dosage on the mild dewormer).


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## rabbitsfizz (Jul 17, 2009)

5ml of Fenbendazole liquid will do fine.

I use a syringe and I do not bother with the foals weight as Fenbendazole is so mild it is not going to hurt if the dose is bit over.


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## disneyhorse (Jul 17, 2009)

Have been told that for pyrantel paomate and ivermectin, the overdose safety margin is about 10x. Soooo it's always better to overdose than underdose. Good advice so far though.

Andrea


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## rabbitsfizz (Jul 18, 2009)

Good point about the overdose level.

You would have to drown a horse in Fenbendazole to do any harm...I think they managed to find an overdose level when using it on mice.............


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## luv2ridesaddleseat (Jul 18, 2009)

I'll never forget a "big" mare I had bought back in 1977 from a local riding accademy that I had worked at. The horses there were never wormed in their lives. I brought her over to the place I was boarding my other horse at and had my Vet over to update her on everything. He shoved 10 complete tubes of de-wormer down her throat! I think I was waiting for the horse to drop dead! Anyway, thats the day I learned not to worry about overdosing a horse on wormer, and that was a LONG time ago!


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