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Worming Schedule?

5K views 14 replies 11 participants last post by  Tammy 
#1 ·
just curious what everyone does. what do you use and how often?
 
#6 ·
I worm every 8 to 12weeks. And i've been trying a few different wormers lately. :)
 
#8 ·
As little as possible

Most horses I don't need to deworm at all. I work with the pastures and do FECs to know what horses need deworming, and then uses dewormers only to stop eggs from contaminating the pastures.

FEC in the spring, and those who need deworming gets moxidectin every 12 week (2-3 dewormings that year, depending on how long it takes for the snow to come), or ivermectin every 8 weeks, or pyrantel pamoate every 4 weeks. I rotate one year at a time. If we get a horse that shows positive for tapes, we use a dewormer containing prazikvantel one time.

All the stables I worked with (regarding parasites) have gone from massive deworming down to 10% of the horses needs regular deworming, in just 2 years. Parasitefree pastures are quite easy to accomplish if you put your mind to it. And that WITHOUT the deworming.
 
#11 ·
The first step to deworming pastures is to have your horses on a worming routine. Then removing or scattering the manure in the pastures and resting the pastures are very important. pastures should be grazed on a rotating basis. Horses will not eat where they have peed or pooped which is why you can see pastures with really long grass and really short grass and wonder why the horses never eat the long grass. Go take a look and you will probably find manure in the long grass. Dragging the field with a chain or spike harrow can help rip up dead grass, aerate the roots and scatter the manure. If you know someone with cows or sheep run them through th epasture after the horses. They will eat the long grass. Do not run horses with sheep unless you have too, I have seen horses kill sheep by stomping on them in play. if you run cattle make sure you have enough water int he pasture as cows drink a lot more water than horses.

Over time if you manage your pastures properly and worm your horses correctly the pastures will become work free. Also if you get a new horse do not turn them out onto the pasture until they have been wormed. Keeping them in after worming so you can inspect their feces to see if any worms passed can be helpful.
 
#13 ·
Tammy said:
what is the first steps to deworming your pastures and how do you maintain them?
Start with a FEC in the spring to see how heavy parasiteload your horses have. Those with EPG (egg per gram) over 100 is to be dewormed. Use the same substance one year at a time with the correct intervals (pyrantel pamoate 4 weeks, ivermectin 8 weeks, moxidectin 12 weeks, prazikvantel max 2 times/year, no fenbendazole since small strongyles are highly resistant to it), not during long dryspells or "true" winter.

Clean out the pastures as often as possible, and if one have the opportunity to have sheep in the pasture it's excellent! Or rotate pastures with cows. Make sure to use separate summer and winter pastures.

In two years or less you'll find that only 10% of the horses needs deworming for strongyles. Bots and tapes in some parts of the country needs to be addressed.
 
#14 ·
Worming schedule?

First, lots of questions--is your horse kept with other horses who are not regularly dewormed or on the same worming schedule? Is manure picked up daily? Is he/she on pasture or on dry lot and fed hay? How many horses per acre? If he/she is kept by him/herself in a dry lot and fed hay and if you pick up manure daily, once every three months is sufficient. Rotate, but at least twice a year use ivermectin/moxidectrin. That's my program, anyway. Also, if your horse is younger versus older, tapeworms have to be addressed.
 
#15 ·
I have 2 horses on about 2 acres(not very much pasture,feed alot of hay) They get wormed every 3 months.Just wormed them in feb. with Combo Care.I try to alternate wormers and keep the manure cleaned up where they like to stand. My mare is around 20 and my stud colt (soon to be gelded) is 17 months old.
 
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