It pays to do a fecal check

[Marty]

What's going on with these wormers?

I'm furious.

I'm on a very good de-worming regimine but why has it quit working? I have been using Zimectrin Gold by the way faithfully, on a very good schedule. I also had been de-worming Timmy more frequently than the rest to ensure his health.

As you know, Timmy has not been feeling well, and one thing I have done is had a fecal check.

Very disgusting results. He surely does have worms. You name it, he's got it. I'm absoultely shocked over this.

His little stomach was so fat, but more so I'd call it bloated or blown up. Really big to the point of scarry. And had been displaying some very classic symptoms of ulcers which is being addressed and he's on meds for that. This could have ended up with a full blown case of worm colic or worse.

He is also on a 5 day purge of Safe-Guard.

He's actually deflating before my eyes, has gotten his appetite back, and even attempted to reluctantly hump Merry Beth and annoy the rest of the mares this morning which we know is his favorite pastime.

We have now begun to turn the corner and Timmy is doing wonderfully thanks to God because Timmy is my heart and soul. To see him sick was killing me.

I am very glad that I bothered with the fecal check or else I would not have known that my de-worming program was not working like it should have. This obviously was a contributing factor to ulcers I believe.

I surely do have Angels protecting us.

If you are in any doubt, have a fecal done. Its cheap and that way you will know if your de-worming program is being effective as it should be.

This has been a free public service announcement. :bgrin

 

[wpsellwood]

So were you using the same wormer every time or rotating them? Glad he is doing better worms are gross ugghh!

 

[capall beag]

wow, that is kind of shocking and worrying.....

Glad you shared this info and sorry that you had to go through this with little Timmy.....

Happy to hear things are improving

 

[billiethekid40]

This makes me seriously consider revising the way I deworm my horse (well, when I get him back anyway). Doing fecal counts and deworming for whats THERE is sounding more and more like the best route. Rather than deworming indiscriminatly and hoping you are getting everything. I think we are over-deworming and developing some resistent super worms and are soon going to be in a world of trouble. Daily dewormers may work and be great for some people, but its something I would never personally consider doing. I think when Bill comes home I'll be investing in quarterly fecal counts... they aren't expensive to have done in my area anyway.

 

[Hosscrazy]

Very smart move, Marty, to have a fecal exam done! :aktion033: I am so glad you were able to locate the source of the problem!

:

Liz R.

 

[lyn_j]

[SIZE=14pt]I worm young horses every month with a paste wormer and also my horses are on Strongid C daily wormer.Im finding that works the best. Glad Timmy is doing better.[/SIZE]

Lyn

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Zimecterin Gold contains Praziquantel and Ivermectin.

It only has 1.55% Ivermectin and the recommended amount is 1.87%.

It is a dual Tape and Broad spectrum dewormer and I think it must say this on the box.

Whilst the difference in the % would /should not make too much difference in an adult horse it most certainly can and will make a difference in a baby- Marty how are you judging his weight??

I always do my foals at ten days with Fenbendazole, which will get rid of the roundworms that I am pretty sure is what is blowing Timmy up- these are the disgusting white things and Fenbendazole does the best job with these. I worm twice with Fenbendazole then go onto Ivermectin.

Marty I feel for you but, if you do not use the right dewormer for the job you will get a poor result.

This is the very reason I do not, per se, rotate, but use different dewormers for different jobs.

Fenbendazole Spring and Autumn.

Praziquantel Spring or Autumn.

Ivermectin in between.

Fenbendazole for foals.

Ivermectin (routinely) for adults.

I like KISS as I find it easier to follow.

You can make the feeding programme as complicated as you like and I lap it up, but worms I like to be sure of.

Sorry...OF COURSE I do the faecal exams as well- but not of each individual. I take samples from each field as if one horse in that field has a problem they will all need treating.

 

[Mercysmom]

I found that the Strongid paste would do a number on roundworms in foals - I'd never see any expelled roundworms after ivermectin worming but after a dose of Strongid paste, those nasty things were being expelled.

Adult horses here on Strongid C with ivermectin treatment in spring and fall after first frost.

Foals up to a year get paste wormer once a month and I rotate between Ivermectin, SafeGuard and Strongid.

As Mercy does service work we do the fecal checks and they have come back negative.

:

Denise

Silversong Farm

Forgot to add - one of our veterinarians does not recommend the daily wormer for foals as he found foals started on the daily wormer do well with it but if they go to a home where worming is not practiced or a different program is followed, they can get overloaded with worms quickly as he felt they lacked an "immunity" of some kind...forget how he worded it exactly but our foals stay with the paste program until they are a year old, then they make the switch to the daily wormer.

 

[Becky]

I've found that Ivermectin is not very effective against roundworms in foals. I generally use Panacur or Safeguard on foals starting when they are one month of age and worming monthly until they are a year old. I will rotate Strongid and an Ivermectin/Praziquantel wormer in there too. I've had very good luck doing that here. No big bellies on my foals!

 

[justaboutgeese]

For the benefit of some less experienced members of the forum most veternarians would recommend doing fecal checks a minimum of two to four times a year. This coupled with rotating the wormers on a regular basis. Listen to your vet when developing a worming program for your horses. Fecal exams are low cost and truth be known can be done by the owner if they have access to a microscope and know what to look for.

 

[Sonya]

Very good advice - I do fecals about every quarter. I only have 4 minis, so it's no big deal, but I can see it would be very expensive if you have lots of minis like people do here. I also have fecals done on the goats, but not as often - about every six months, and the chickens too. And about every six months for the dogs too, and my cat when he was alive. My vet gives me very good prices on them since often I am bringing in 9-10 baggies of poop at a time - he only charges me 5$ - when the normal charge is around $15. Vet can tell lots from poo - not just worms, checking for blood, abnormalties, etc...

I also rotate my wormers for the horses to cover many different kinds of worms. I've been lucky in the past year and a half - no worms in anyone! Knocking on wood!

 

[Lauralee]

Years ago, I thought I was giving my quarter horses the BEST deworming regimen because I was buying the MOST ADVERTISED, and MOST EXPENSIVE, and what appeared to be touted as the MOST EFFECTIVE dewormer on the market, Zimecterin.

I was using Zimecterin EVERY 6 weeks on the dot, dosing them for slightly more than their actual weight to be sure they got enough.

I did that for 3 years straight, Zimecterin all the way.

Then I had a long yearling colic on me.....fecal exam showed tons of worms (strongyles I think)? and I did some more research on my deworming regimen.

Ever since that time, I have ROTATED dewormers by chemical classes and we haven't had any problems since.

I also started deworming my babies MONTHLY for the first whole year of life, plus they get Strongid C daily in the feed.

 

[Michelle@wescofarms]

We give the pregnant mares Ivermectin a month before foaling and this year have added the Ivermectin within the first 12 hours back to the program. We also only use Fenbendazole (Panucur or SafeGuard) on the babies up to 6 months then switch to Ivermectin. Everyone gets EquiMax (Ivermectin/Praziquantel) in the Fall.

Here is the difference between the two on the market for tape worms -

EquiMax (Pfizer)

1.87% Ivermectin

14.03% Praziquantel

Zimectrin Gold Controls 61 species and stages of equine parasites, including tapeworms.

1.55% Ivermectin

7.75% praziquantel

 

[Marty]

A lot of you youngins don't know is that years ago there was no paste wormers. You had to call your vet to de-worm.......tube worm. Then, when the paste wormers came out, it was a God-send to us. I also used the worm "shot" for a while. Buying a bottle of ivermectrin for large horses is cost efficient too.

The way I have always de-wormed was to use an ivermectrin product 4 times a year, and then twice a year with Strongid and I always used to double dose the strongid . This was always the way I did my string of quarter horses too. To double dose the strongid did get a bit costly with big horses but I never had problems at all on this program. I did use Strongid C daily wormer with them too for nearly 2 years but that did get too expensive to do so I went back to paste wormers.

Buying wormers for miniatures VS a bunch of big horses is almost comical it's so cheap to do I am totally faithful with this regimine but obviously I'm going to have to re-group and make some changes here.

In my defsense of being ignorant since Timmy is my first miniature foal, I did not de-worm him at 10 days old like Fizzy or at 30 days old either. I must have started just way too late, per my vet's instructions. I won't make this mistake again but I'm still in a quandry of why so many different opinions on when exactly to begin de-worming a foal and with what product would be the choice of products. I'd like more input on this one.

In hindsight I also remember now that last year I had purchased some Equimectrin on sale from Jeffers Equine instead of going with the Zimectrin Gold but that shouldn't have made a difference in that type of wormer.

 

[JO~*]

When I first got my minis, I was seeing worms in their poop that looked like bean sprouts so I took a sample of the poop in for a fecal and it came back negative for anything.

So I then took one of the worms in as proof that there was something in there.

Pin worms were what I was told. The vet explained why they didn't show up in the fecal.

Anyway it took me a few worming to get rid of them. Something about their cycle.

My minis must have been full of them for me to actually see them and so many!

The people I got my girls from said they wormed them routinely and had fecals done yearly.

Just passing on some info for what its worth.

Jo

 

[Cathy_H]

took a sample of the poop in for a fecal and it came back negative for anything. So I then took one of the worms in as proof that there was something in there.

That's the problem. In the past when we've seen worms in young horses manure they were NOT in every piece of manure. If the worms cannot be seen with the naked eye then you don't know if you are picking up some manure with worms or not. When we've done fecals I try to get some manure from both ends of the pile or top or bottom not just in one spot.

 

[Robin1]

I rotate per my vets advise. They are wormed every two months

1. Panacure (sp?)

2. Ivermectin

3. Strongid

then start over again.

Panacure for the babies.

Robin

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Are you doing the Fenbendazole (panacur) double dose five day??