What Type Of Dewormer?

[Mini Gray Heart Mini Horse]

What type of dewormer progam do every one do and what kind of dewormer does eveyone buy for there minis that are safe to use and use for pregnant mares/foals. How ofter do y'all Dewormer.

I deworm everyone every 3-4 months is that ok. I usually use safe gaurd but i use something that i cant remember the name of.

Thanks for the advice everyone ☺

 

[JMS Miniatures]

I would ask the vet. He will probably want to do a fecal test, which isn't expensive and that will help determine how often and with what.

IMO the general rules of deworming has changed.

 

[Miniv]

The most common rotation is Ivermectin and Strongid.....Many folks also use Panacur as part of their rotation.

(Quest is strongly NOT advised.)

We've developed a system here where when we worm, we hoof trim, and clip their bridle path all at the same time,

which means approx. every 8 weeks.

Some people have also taken stool samples and had their vet analyze them to see if there are specific worms

that need to be taken care of which helps dictate what wormer should be used first.

We keep our pregnant mares on the same schedule and then worm them again IMMEDIATELY after foaling with

ivermectin....This helps the foal and reduces the incidences of "foal scours". Our foals are first wormed at about

2 to 3 months with Panacur or Safeguard and then are put on the same schedule as the rest.

The most common rotation is Ivermectin and Strongid.....Many folks also use Panacur as part of their rotation.

(Quest is strongly NOT advised.)

We've developed a system here where when we worm, we hoof trim, and clip their bridle path all at the same time,

which means approx. every 8 weeks.

Some people have also taken stool samples and had their vet analyze them to see if there are specific worms

that need to be taken care of which helps dictate what wormer should be used first.

We keep our pregnant mares on the same schedule and then worm them again IMMEDIATELY after foaling with

ivermectin....This helps the foal and reduces the incidences of "foal scours". Our foals are first wormed at about

2 to 3 months with Panacur or Safeguard and then are put on the same schedule as the rest.

 

[Miniv]

The most common rotation is Ivermectin and Strongid.....Many folks also use Panacur as part of their rotation.

(Quest is strongly NOT advised.)

We've developed a system here where when we worm, we hoof trim, and clip their bridle path all at the same time,

which means approx. every 8 weeks.

Some people have also taken stool samples and had their vet analyze them to see if there are specific worms

that need to be taken care of which helps dictate what wormer should be used first.

We keep our pregnant mares on the same schedule and then worm them again IMMEDIATELY after foaling with

ivermectin....This helps the foal and reduces the incidences of "foal scours". Our foals are first wormed at about

2 to 3 months with Panacur or Safeguard and then are put on the same schedule as the rest.

 

[Miniv]

Sorry about the repeat of part of my post.......My internet was being goofy.

 

[Mini Gray Heart Mini Horse]

Ok thanks i usaully use safe gaurd and ivermectin every 3 to 4 months. Might try what jms miniatures about getting a vet to do a fecal test to to make sure im doing there dewormer all right. Im still learning this stuff i want to make sure they are happy and healthy minis. ☺

 

[fourluckyhorseshoes]

My personal belief is not to worm unless you need to. So we generally do 2 fecal egg sample a year (Spring and Fall). After we get the results we de-worm as the vet recommends. If they aren't wormy, why worm?

I agree with not using Quest...no no no! There is a safer alternative, I think its EquiMax.

 

[AngC]

Fecal tests get kind of expensive. Here in our area, it costs about $25 per horse. So for our three it costs $75 for each round of poop tests. I've been doing it to gain a baseline. (i.e., I started with an initial test, then administered the recommended product, then did a follow-up fecal a month later, then administered dewormer, then did follow-up, etc.)

This year, I'm trying something different. Yesterday, I gave them fenbendazole in an alfalfa-pellet based form (called Equi-Bits.) It's the same ingredient as Panacur (which is what the vet said to give the last two years in the spring, with our older stallion being prescribed a 5-day Panacur pack, whereas, the two girls' were recommended a single dose each.) I divided the Equi-Bits bag up between our 3 horses: the dose on the bag said it was for 1250 lbs of horse. Hopefully, none of our fat-bombs weigh over 400 lb, but I wasn't worried about overdosing them since the Panacur 5-day puts more dewormer in their systems.

I haven't quite decided how to proceed next. I'm thinking I'll wait a month and then collect a fecal sample. I don't know. I am also eager to see whether my poop-picking-up campaign has had an effect. I have really worked hard on that for over a year now. One good sign is that the first year, Baby rubbed her bottom so hard on trees/fences that her tail was looking like something you would stick on the back of a rat, and this year the girls haven't scratched their bottoms at all. Yet.

Great topic. I sure hope other people comment. I have searched all over the internet and have been unable to find any reputable data that explains the life cycle of parasites in various parts of the country.

Edited-to-Add: The vet has never recommended Strongid. I wonder why.

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

My poor guy is very allergic to any of the 'zoles' - both fenbendazole and oxybendazole. Think pipeline explosive diarrhea. He gets panacure and ivermectin, but we focus more on preventing than curing parasites.

I do not ever let any of them graze on show grounds - I don't know who's pooped there and shared whatever they had!!!! We also clean pastures frequently. It does not take much if it's kept up on. He's on a dry lot too, and eats just hay. Keeps the risk down too.

 

[paintponylvr]

Great topic. I sure hope other people comment. I have searched all over the internet and have been unable to find any reputable data that explains the life cycle of parasites in various parts of the country.

The basic life cycle is the same no matter what country/area of the country you live in. However, deep cold is supposed to kill some (I can never remember which ones) and spreading manure to expose parasites to heat/sunlight also kills them. However, neither kills all the eggs, which attach to the grass/rocks/dirt and get picked up while grazing... Some eggs can "live" for years on a pasture, then be picked up by a horse and boom - life cycle starts again. Similar to flea eggs in a home ...

AS to Strongid - ASK. Possibly due to resistance. In our area, Panacur, is the one that they are resistant to. About 1/2 the vets say NO to any Panacur (waste of money/time) and the other half say it can be used at least for foals and/or rescues/debilitated horses that need to start with a milder dose of wormer. ALSO, even the vets that say no to a single dose of Panacur will recommend a 5 day Powerpack if they aren't quite "picking up" where they "should be". They don't always do fecal checks - just say go ahead and worm. The vets that I have spoken to here don't recommend the "in feed" wormers (mine won't eat their feed if wormer of any kind is put in it - have problems w/ other meds, too, so I always syringe wormer/meds into mine).

It amazes me - the vets that seem to recommend fecal checks the most - hate doing them. Right now my time is so limited - but getting a microscope and doing checks myself are on the "list" of things to start doing - again. They really aren't hard to do. We did them ourselves when I was growing up - we had fewer horses and we had GREAT results. We did work with our vet - and he would sometimes check what I was doing (I was the one that did most of the horse care). This was when I was 12 - 18 yrs old. He was contributing to science - while I didn't go into vet medicine, I have continued to try to be very involved in our horses' health over the years. I prefer to do as much care as I can - with all of our animals.

Cleaning your pastures should make a big difference. Either composting the manure or spreading it in an area that you aren't using for a while should work (I can't remember how much property you have). The best investment for me was the Cyclone Rake - an attachment for our riding lawn mower that essentially "vacuums" up leaves/debris and MANURE from the pastures while mowing. Then I empty it into a compost pile -

Here in our new set up - could probably spread it. Don't know yet...

Also remember - foals/young horses eat manure at first and it helps to start/build their immunity to certain worms. As they mature, some worms become not such of a problem for horses in good shape. And, in every herd, you will probably find one horse who simply defies the worms. Their immunity system is resistant to worms. Just like some people never get sick...

 

[Mini Gray Heart Mini Horse]

Thanks everyone for the great advice.

 

[AngC]

The basic life cycle is the same no matter what country/area of the country you live in.

I've read about what you said, what I don't understand is when particular parasites "hatch." I would think there's an optimum time to smack them with the dewormer. So, although, I've read about the life cycle, I have found nothing that tells me at what time in the various areas of the countries that this occurs. It seems to me that there would be a "best" time to administer dewormer.

Good idea about the microscope; I've been toying with that idea for a bit. We've got a couple microscopes kicking around here; one of them is pretty "high-power." I have the husband blessing (the one I want is for his circuit-board soldering.) As long as I don't plop it on the dining room table I have husband permission. I'm not too sure what I'll be looking for, but I guess I can try.

I looked at the Cyclone Rake. But then we needed a lawn mower so I got a Kubota with a small front end loader. So I'm on the manual system, but it really does work out well for me; even though I have to shovel I figure it's good exercise!

oh, I forgot to say... I swear if the girls start scrubbing their tails on the trees, I had read about pinworms (or was it ascarids?) on the anus. So I was thinking I could scrub their butt-openings with baby wipes. They're not going to like it, but I do like their tails to look nice. I wonder if anyone else does this or am I totally whacked out?

 

[chandab]

AngC, the butt rubbing can also be a sign of dirty sheath in geldings (and stallions) and crud between the halves of the udder in a mare. Baby wipes work great for cleaning up crud on mare's udders, and removing that ick they accumulate.

 

[AngC]

AngC, the butt rubbing can also be a sign of dirty sheath in geldings (and stallions) and crud between the halves of the udder in a mare. Baby wipes work great for cleaning up crud on mare's udders, and removing that ick they accumulate.

hmmm.... I don't know about Nicky's sheath; I've left that up to the vet.

The two girls have clean "*******." One of the things the trainer had me do was handle the girls all over, including their "****ies."

I speculate that the tail rubbing was due to ascarids/pinworms? Nicky's tail has always looked nice, but the girls, especially Baby rubbed too hard on the trees. They are not yet doing that this year. If they start rubbing their butts, I am glad to hear that I wasn't "out there" with my idea about baby-wipes.

One other thing I was thinking I would do... the husband set me up with a propane tank on a dolly with a flame-thrower attached. I'm going to flame the pea gravel outside the barn. We don't get the temperature extremes here, that other parts of the country get, so I was thinking fire-flame would perhaps "cook" any eggs.

One last comment... paintponylvr mentioned that some horses won't eat "in-feed" dewormers. I had no problem with the Equi-Bits; all three of ours scarfed them up.. I kind of wonder about the efficacy, though... as compared to a gooey-squirt-from a tube.

 

[paintponylvr]

Yep - when I only had 3 - I also did the manual labor. Actually - didn't get the cyclone rake until we went over 30 head of equine! We did manual pick up in pastures (besides myself & daughters - paid high school students & out of work neighbors) with up to 6 head in each one (some of those up to 16 hh full size horses) for many, many years - actually all my own personal life w/ my own horses. BUT the cyclone rake fit what we needed when suddenly there weren't any out of work neighbors, our own 3 kids had grown up and left home (but each had a horse left at home)/the other high school students were more interested in "real" jobs, both hubby and I were working full time and dealing with some pretty big health issues and we simply couldn't do the work. Shoot, even cleaning a pen w/ just 1 horse in it (x 4 pens) got difficult to do for a while... then there was all the leaves from those o-so-beautiful but too gol-darned many trees. What took several months to rake up and burn (just the leaves) became great mulch and fertilizer - in hours! Who knows - maybe if we'd have had the cyclone rake in 2008 - our 15 yr old daughter wouldn't have been under the tree that snapped and landed on her - breaking her back in two places... It didn't end her horse career - 9 months later she was riding and showing our arab mare - or her current very active college career, but makes you wonder... Sometimes I do wish I'd opted for the tractor with the bucket, bush hog and post hole auger, though! The leaves are piling up here at our new place (UHHHH - did I say that of the 21 acres - 2/3 of it are in trees w/ either pine needles/cones or leaves?) and so is the manure. In the next month, the cyclone rake will start getting a work out and earning it's keep.

I would have to do some research now - I don't know how which worm life cycles in which states would work. But, seems that last had that info myself from on-line. ?? I'm fairly certain that there are others here that have/know that info.

As to wormer - I currently subscribe to many places that regularly have sales of $1.99/tube of Ivermectin paste BUT for the shetlands/minis I REALLY like the liquid. It's less mess & faster/easier. You need a prescription to get it now - but it is worth it! I also prefer double dosing Strongid via liquid vs paste and when I do use Panacur - it too can be gotten in a liquid. So much easier to get more exact measurements in liquid form for the younger/smaller ones than with the paste wormers that only have 250 lb increment measures on the tubes.

Using the baby wipes on the anus are good to keep them clean and will clean up the worms that are there at the time - but won't kill what's in the intestinal tract. Also, consider dry skin &/or some version of "sweet itch" or even temporary reactions to pollens/saps. We have several that the have problems with insects - and what starts as a "real" reaction to something becomes a habit. Doncha know that rubbing is addictive (said tongue in cheek)? I, too, have scratched myself raw at times - just 'cuz that "scritching" felt soooooo good -

. But it usually still ties into something going on - right now - I itch a lot and have dry skin patches in certain areas ("new" house - 1st time in years have central heat/air; new water - I don't think I've ever lived off of straight well water & stress all make me "itchy". First time the ponies that I bred/raised have been on well water too, they've always drunk treated, municipal water). I'm less likely to scratch or rub myself if I take care of the dry skin first. Our daughter's arab mare that always itched herself raw - tail, mane, forelock, belly & chest - from May thru October - also was borderline IR and usually on the "heavy" side (diet/metabolism tied into her itchies - we do know that she also had an issue w/ "no-see-ums") ... BTW - I LOVE baby wipes - so many uses in the barn, truck, trailer - not just for baby bums!

Never heard of doing that to rocks, but suppose the premise sounds good/right. HEHEHEHEH - could just be a way to have fun w/ the flame thrower.

 

[AngC]

...

Never heard of doing that to rocks, but suppose the premise sounds good/right. HEHEHEHEH - could just be a way to have fun w/ the flame thrower.

No, not rocks--pea gravel. The pea gravel idea was the best idea I read here on the forums, to date. And I can't remember who suggested it; other than her thumb was broken by a frozen hoof-pattie. Whoever she is, my heartfelt thanks because it's working out really well. However, although I've been religious about scooping poop every day, some little apples invariably escaped me. And I had read that the parasite eggs can cling to anything--like grass blades; so I thought perhaps eggs could get in the pea gravel. I figured I'd flame it with the propane torch. I don't know what temperature would kill parasite eggs, but I think the torch should get up in the 2,000F range.

You are an absolute font of information. I didn't even know they made liquid dewormers.

Food for thought (my thoughts, at least) is your mention of "heavy" IR horse; hopefully, we have no IR here, but we did have heavy. Although, I think we're doing much better on the weight issue with all of them.

PS... I can relate to your "itchy" story; I have psoriasis.

 

[paintponylvr]

Lots to learn when you get into horses!! If you grow up around them and are "horse obsessed" - you absorb everything from an early age. Plus I'm always looking for alternatives as we've always worked on a shoestring budget. That was part of why I'm always looking to do much on my own, make my own equipment and look at doing things as effectively as possible. Sometimes that also means learning to buy "more expensive" from the get go - then you only "cry once" as it's said... Rather than constantly replacing equipment.

I make a LOT of my own equipment - everyday type stuff and used to sew for the girls when they were younger and I had time. I've made sheets, saddle pads, saddle covers, halter/bridle bags(all sewing); collars, halters, lead ropes, trailer ties, lounge lines, training forks, headstalls, reins, driving lines and full sets of harness (pleasure type) - from rope, leather (recycled from broken reins), braided paracord and braided (recycled) haystring. Pic of saddle pad 1 & saddle pad 2. Here's pics of braided stuff

Here's some liquid wormers. I also give my own vaccinations (USUALLY much less expensive). I hunt around to check costs, then decide where I will order from. I have a few places I'm pretty loyal to now and since I do large orders, I seem to get free shipping all the time as well. It's harder to do w/ only 1 or 2. I also put together an order and find out if any friends want to be included, then add that to my order. My boarder (2 minis) and a friend (2 arabs; 3 shetlands) are purchasing wormer & vax thru me next week - the whole order is arriving next week - no extra shipping even for the overnight of 20 doses of WN,EWe, T. Last year, I didn't give anyone Flu/Rhino vax - this year I will be giving some to ones I know I'm showing (has to be given every 90 days or not effective). I also am on lots of email lists - so I get offered specials (on line coupons) all the time!! If you just get the paper catalog you don't find out about the specials... (Valley Vet, Dover, Jeffers, United Vet Equine - think I get a couple of others but can't remember them right now). I always seem to miss the specials on clipper blades, though - which is a major drag (several places do BOGO offers a couple times a year). I used to do a lot of clipping - the last several years have not. Now I need to go back to it - showing at least 4 ponies this year... And I like to keep mine "cleaned up" when I take them to driving events - even though it isn't a show. Plus, w/ driving, trimming jaws and bridle paths (BP) make your headstall/bridle fit better and not come off.

Scrip Ivermectin

Liquid Panacur Scrip

Liquid Panacur generic

This is a prescription Strongid (pyrantel pamoate) - scrip Strongid

This generic Strongid (pyrantel pamoate) just came back on the market. Strongid

 

[AngC]

haha. I grew up around horses. Problem was adults took care of everything. I entered the game as an old fogey thinking I could just water them and turn them out on pasture, and off-season provide some hay. I have learned so much, to the contrary.

I have written down your dewormer info.

I might be a dumb-butt, but I never even thought about that I could ask the vet for what I want. (I'm assuming that where you say "script" it means I have to have a DVM write a script?)

No vaccinations for me; I have a needle phobia. ...not to mention, I wouldn't have the slightest clue of how and where to inject.

In my opinion there's stuff you pay for to ensure your horses are well cared for; and then there's stuff you don't. Hooves and needles are two--that for me are something where I gain huge value by hiring someone.

 

[chandab]

I have a bit of a needle phobia, too, but sometimes you have to give daily shots for a week or such, and it gets very expensive to have the vet out every day. Plus I live in the sticks, so call out fees are expensive, and it's not practical to load up a whole herd. When I lived closer to town and only had one horse, the vet did more work for me; although, I'm contemplating having the vet out for spring vaccinations this year, as I have a couple that are total pains for shots and they get missed (after 2-3 tries and you lose the whole vaccine).

 

[JWC sr.]

We use a rotation of Ivermectin and Strongid like many have mentioned. We do the breeding horses every 8 weeks when they are having the hooves trimmed and bridlepaths done. The show horses are done every 4 weeks with the same rotation. The babies we do every 6 weeks.