Deworming Woes

I meant to post this yesterday after I dewormed my horses... I'm so mad at my two year old gelding! He made me chase him for about a half an hour through the pasture in freezing rain at night before I caught him and then we fought for another fifteen minutes before he let me deworm him! He saw me stick the dewormer in my mares mought and he just took off across the pasture and wouldn't let me get near him... when I finally caught him, he raised his head so high that I couldn't reach his mouth and kept jumping around like an idiot trying to keep away from the dewormer.

Is there any way I can get him easier to deworm? He hates it when I get near his mouth with anything... I think it stems from when I had to shove a tube of medicine down his throat twice daily for a month when he got a bad joint infection when he was just a few months old... Ever since then, he's hated me getting near or really messing with his mouth... Is it because he thinks I'm going to force him to take something?

What can I do to make deworming him easier?

Suringe with applesauce
Do it every week, more if you need to, so he gets to LOVE the suringe. Then when time for worming, give him the worming medicine and immediately give him a suringe of applesauce

He needs to be first!!! You may also want to consider a wormer collar.... Very similar to a halter, but makes worming young ones very easy!!!

Yes, normally I do deworm him first... but I already had my mare caught and didn't feel like taking the halter off to put on Dakota then right back on Gypsie... Lol...

I'm going to try the applesauce idea and see if he figures out that it's not a bad thing...

Make sure you have a halter and lead rope for both.

The apple sauce is a good idea. Also, try having a helper there with you when worming especially the young ones. Even with my 4 who are all relatively easy I have my husband help. He takes care of holding their heads if the do pull a little and I take care of sneaking the wormer in :)

I don't have a helper... I live with my great grandmother and she doesn't like my boy because he grabbed her by her hair and stole her birdseed bucket about a year ago... she won't even go outside when he's outside now... and I'm not about to let any of my family who lives around us help... I don't want my boy terrified to death... I may be able to rope one of my friends into helping me though... Good idea!

Stories like this and some of the suggestions leave me open-mouthed.

First let me apologize in advance because I am not bashing.

I have been training horses for 49 of my 61 years and have never had a horse react as has just been explained, nor have I ever had to use some sort of device to accomplish what I need done.

We never used nose chains either -- not even on my grandpap's stallion during breeding because we "handled, handled, handled", our horses from front-to-back and top-to-bottom every day. We had and still have their respect because they want to give it.

Accept for my Arab, I have never owned a horse that, at any age, I couldn't walk up to them in the field, put my arm around their neck and give them a tube of wormer.

The Arab was the worst horse I have ever owned to worm when I rescued him 15+ years ago. I did have to halter him because he wouldn't open his mouth and was making a monkey face that even his mother wouldn't love - lol lol

I know where those teeth end in his mouth, so I would quickly put that syringe in the back of his mouth and push the wormer in.

Then I would have to walk him and rub his "adams apple" at the same time until he swallowed. If I didn't, he would hold the wormer in his mouth until I walked away and he'd spit it out.

This is where "handling that horse every day before it gets to handling you" is important. I think the modern catch-word for that is "imprinting".

Young horses especially need their eyes, noses, mouths, ears, private areas, anal areas handled often, so when they really need to have something done in one of those areas , they won't do what your two-year old did with the wormer. He has just learned a very bad habit that is now going to be hard to break.

Again, I really do apologize if I sound harsh, because I don't mean to be -- that is the problem with keyboards --- no voice inflection.

This young-un' needs a lot of hands-on every day. If he doesn't get it, he is going to end up sour and misunderstood and his dollar value will go right down the drain.

He's at the age, where he should stand quietly in the pasture to have his hooves at least picked up and rubbed on, stand quietly for brushing with nothing more than a binder twine around his neck, and again, let someone put their arm around his neck and put the wormer in his mouth --- even following that with a "GOOD BOY!", scratch on the neck, and a horse treat

Totally, you took the words right out of my fingertips!

Thanks so much for the advice! It's not harsh sounding at all. He does stand quietly in the pasture to have his fooves messed with, brushing, and everything except for deworming. Anyone can go up to him, pet him, play with him, lead him all over by his mane... It's just the deworming that we have trouble with right now.

I've got all winter to work on him getting better at it... his next deworming isn't until February/March... and time is no issue, nor is me not wanting to go out and mess with him in freezing weather, I don't care what it's like outside, I love messing with my horses.

Thanks so much!