vendredi 12 juillet 2019

Useful And Essential Facts About Horse Wormers

By Christopher Barnes


All kinds of wild and domestic animals face some kind of worm infestation. There are many adverse effects that these worms inflict on animals, especially horses and ponies. As such, one should be able to know when to deworm the horses. Due to the fact that there are numerous kinds of worms, one should know the right wormer to give at a particular time of the year. This is worth knowing about horse wormers.

It is quite challenging to choose the appropriate wormer because of the many different wormers that are currently available on the market. The many worming programs in existence always confuse people a lot. Another challenge is that most worms that affect horses are becoming resistant to wormers. As such, the medication has to be administered in the most appropriate way to prevent the pests from becoming resistant.

Even though horses may carry worms in their bodies, it is not always necessary to treat the problem. Research indicates that only 20 percent of horses carry a worm burden that is high enough to require treatment. To be sure about when to administer treatment, it is necessary to conduct a saliva test. This is a simple test that one can conduct by themselves without requiring a veterinarian.

The importance of carrying out a saliva test is to avoid administering medication when it is not necessary. Besides harming the horse, this may also encourage resistance against medication by the worms. As a solution against this problem, several worming programs have been developed over the years. Some are effective while others are not that useful.

One should start by determining the presence of tapeworms by conducting a saliva test. In the event the results come back positive, one ought to target tapeworms using increased doses of pyrantel or a wormer which has praziquantel. Some of the products to use are Eqyalan Duo, stongid P, Equimax and Equest pramox. One can also use a combination of medications that has pyrantel or praziquantel in high doses.

Winter is the most appropriate time to eliminate small redworms. During this season, the worms are usually in their encysted larval stages. Moxidectin wormer should be used to treat horses during this time. Botfly larvae can also be eliminated using moxidectin at this time. A high dosage of fenbendazole can also treat these worms. However, fenbendazole does not kill botfly larvae. Panacur equine and equest can also be used to treat redworms.

In spring, one should test for tapeworms again and only give medication if the results are positive. In summer, one should test for FEC and worm an provide pyrantel or fenbendazole. Besides providing wormers, it is important to exercise caution in how one handles the horses. As a healthy habit, one should always remove feces from grazing pasture at least weekly to prevent ingestion of worms.

Pastures should not be over-stocked. A single horse should be kept in an area of about 1 to 1.5 acres. However, the size and weight of the horse may call for variation of the total size of the area it is grazed. Eggs of worms can also be controlled by grazing horses together with sheep and cows. These measures should be combined with pasture rotation.




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