worming

I know this is a pretty basic question but I am a first time horse owner as of 5 days. I know my horse was wormed 10 days ago. How often do they need to be wormed?

My vet says 6-8 weeks. Honestly, I usually go the 8. Of course, there are daily de-wormers, too, which I've never tried...but I think your standard run-of-the-mill usually should last about that long. Also, my vet says to alternate occasionally. I think the worms build up resistence? Hope this helps. :)

Oh, and congratulations!

What you worm with is as important, imo, as how often you worm. You can do a daily feed-through system or you can do periodic/rotational worming.
For a rotational worming schedule, I do it on alternating months - so 1,3,5,7 etc. You want to use a different "type" to address the various parasitic types. If you google "worming schedule" it will bring up a variety but they all follow the same basic principals. Example:
Month OneA fenbendazole-based product such as Safe Guard.Month ThreeAn ivermectin-based product such as Zimecterin Gold.Month FiveA pyrantel pamoate-based product such as Strongid.Month SevenAn oxibendazole-based product such as Anthelcide EQ.Month NineA moxidectin-based product such as Quest.
Also, be sure you are using the proper dosage (have an accurate weight on your horse) to avoid under-dosing which can actually backfire by helping the parasites build a resistance/tolerance to the de-wormer.

Many retailers (especially online) offer "packs" that come with the wormer you will need for an entire year with the proper variety.

With one or two horses, we did every 3 months; with 3 horses, we do every 2 months, rotating the wormers as is typical.
With the growing resistance to some wormers, however, there has been recent literature about reducing the frequency of worming.
If you really want to know, the best thing to do is a fecal analysis (though we have never bothered with this). That will tell you if there are any parasites, and what kind, so you know the best wormer to use. I don't know about Australia, but in the U.S., many states will do this for free through the Agriculture Department if you collect and send the speciman, or your vet can certainly do it.

Good point! LoL, I was just told this for the first time a few months ago...I don't think people stress it enough.

How many horses do you have? How big is your paddock? Do you/can you rotate/strip graze your paddock to rest parts of it? How often does your horse have contact with other horses/livestock?

We have four horses paddocked together. They used to be rotated paddocks every few months so we only wormed every few months as we changed paddocks. Now they are in one big paddock for longer, so we worm a bit more regularly. If they were in a group paddock situation, I would worm every 6-8 weeks on the dot.

Depends on your situation :]

thanks everyone. I only have one horse but she is in a paddock with one other horse and directly next door to two others. Rotating the type of wormer is something I have heard of doing before and it makes sense. Does anyone know what type of womer is in this type: Eraquell pellets. this is what was used with Lena last time

update on that I found out that Eraquell is ivermectin

I buy one of these packs. It takes care of wormings for a year.

Premium One-Year Wormer Pack (Equine - Horse Wormers - Paste Wormer - Equine - Ivermectin Horse Wor

i do mine every month