Last year when I got Meg I took on a worming program with the Intellegent worming company and it came back she had a high egg burden but the last sample 12 months on showed no sign of anything! For another year they want £94 off me to continue.

Now I really don't know anything about worming but I think thats quite alot of money. I don't think my horses are high risk as I just rent a field & its poo picked regularily, just 3 horses in total.

In Feb Meg had equest & in may Eraquell....where do I go from here if I don't use Intellegent worming again?

Should I send off a sample in Aug time & see what it shows?

I am not into testing, as if they need it it has cost you twice as much.

I order mine from in http://www.equine-mega-store.com/category8.ehtml Australia they have Equest plus tape, and now do a year package. Bearing in mind I do 15, the cost is not as much as you are paying per year! This product also works for 14 weeks!

__________________
Horseybird; unpaid Horseball groom in Normandie.

Some reason you went onto Eraquell Sonya ? Just interested is all.
My boss mentioned a change from Equest Gel next time. Do you rest any of your field at all?



Regards

Hi Roly, she was on a program made up by the intellegent worming people, not by me, they just send out what you need & when.

My field is a new field, only moved in March, yes some is sectioned off for the winter & some sectioned off for a riding area which they mow for me every now & then!

Hi Sonya,
I can tell you my worming plan for the year if that's any help.
Round about February time I use Panacur Equine Guard to treat the small redworm larvae. It's a 5 day course you have to mix in with the feed. Some horses won't eat it tho' , if that's the case Equest has the same active ingredient so you can that instead but it's not as thorough. I repeat this in November.
In March I use Equimax to treat tapeworm and repeat that at the end of September.
During the grazing season, April to August I alternate a routine wormer ie, one year I might use Panacur, the next Vectin, the next Pyratape P etc
Finally in December I treat the bots with Vectin or a similar product that targets bots.
I buy all my wormers online at www.wormers-direct.co.uk
Hope this helps!

I've been on the wrong end of horses with worms so when you consider the £94 compared to the vets bills and perhaps hospitalisation if the horses get into trouble, it sounds cheap for peace of mind.




Be lucky son

How long before the negative sample did you deworm and with what?
What kind of management situation is this horse in? Stalled, pasture/paddock? Feces removal? Etc?

The negative sample was in May & followed by Eraquell.

Horses live out 24/7, 2 ponies mine and another belonging to a friend. I poo pick every other day but my friend is letting the side down & rarely poo picks :( so it's not getting done as often as i'm getting fed up...grrrr.

How much poo can a poo picker pick, if a poo picker won't pick poo???????? I mean??





Regards

Ok, so you used moxidectin in Feb and retested in May and had a low count. Do you remember if it was below 200 eggs per gram of feces? What were your temps like Feb to May? What month do you do your spring deworming and your fall deworming?

(Sorry, wrong side of the pond so I'm having to ask more questions.)

First, understand that you should always involve your vet in planning your deworming program and that's even more important now because strategic deworming should be done rather than following the old "deworm every 6-8 weeks rotating dewormers" which will no longer provide effective protection for your horse and will only help to build resistance. Along with the development of resistance is the fact that we now know that 20% of horses carry 80% of the parasites and those are the ones that need a more stringent deworming regimen while the other 80% of horses will need less frequent dewormings because they have a better resistance to parasites and thus don't carry big burdens even without frequent dewormings. . Add in the fact that environmental conditions vary all over the world and they have a direct affect on environmental contamination with parasite larve and on when infection rates are going to be highest in each situation. All of these facts mean that there is no "one-size-fits-all" deworming program. Some horses may only need deworming twice yearly while others like foals require much more frequent dewormings. So, rather than just following the old plan it's now recommended to practice strategic deworming--plan a program based upon the specifics of each horse and use diagnostic testing to ensure that the program is appropriate or to determine when deworming is necessary. This is to help reduce the number of dewormings to help slow the development of resistance while still providing adequate deworming for each horse. This is important because there aren't any new deworming drugs that will be hitting the market anytime soonIt is important to take all factors into account and know which horses are more resistant and which are less resistant in order to plan a deworming program that is going to be effective for minimizing parasite loads, minimizing the frequency of treatments and also minimizing the risk/rate of parasite resistance developing to the drugs in use.
So, rather than just following the old plan it's now recommended to practice strategic deworming--plan a program based upon the specifics of each horse and use diagnostic testing to ensure that the program is appropriate or to determine when deworming is necessary. This is to help reduce the number of dewormings to help slow the development of resistance while still providing adequate deworming for each horse. This is important because there aren't any new deworming drugs that will be hitting the market anytime soon.

There are 4 classes of dewormer on the market:
benzimendazoles --fenbendazole, oxibendazole, other chemicals that end in -azole (there is a long list)
pyrantels---pyrantel pamoate (paste) and pyrantel tartrate (daily dewormer)
avermectins---ivermectin and moxidectin
praziquantel

Of those 4 classes, all but praziquantel are "broad spectrum" meaning that they kill several types of parasites. It is not necessary (or at least was not prior to the developement of parasite resistance) to rotate dewormers using these products to kill the most common parasites of horses. The "rotate to kill the different types of parasites" was necessary when we only had the much older drugs which were often only effective against one or two types of parasites. Praziquantel is the only one of the current drugs that is not broad spectrum and it kills tapeworms which the other drugs are not effective against unless you use pyrantel at twice the normal dose.

But, these drugs are not all as effective as they used to be because they have been over-used and mis-used for many years. Now we have parasites that are becoming and have become resistant to these drugs so we have to change our deworming strategies to help slow the build up of resistance while still minimizing the parasite load in our horses.

When planning a deworming program for adult horses, your main concerns are strongyles, tapeworms and bots in that order. (And this is where you can really see the big problem with deworming based on that link above.) Strongyles are the parasite with the most resistance issues--in more than 90% of areas tested these parasites are now resistant to fenbendazole and in more than 40% they are resistant to pyrantel. There has even been 1 study showing strongyles becomeing resistant to ivermectin. So, the standard rotation in that link you are likely not going to be effectively killing strongyles for 1, maybe 2 and even as many as 3 out of 3 dewormings.

So, rotation options are limited at best and it's really not the rotation that is most important for preventing parasite resistance but appropriate dosing and treatment intervals. It's now known that all adult horses living in the same situation do not necessarily need to be dewormed on the same schedule. 50% of horses in a herd will control parasite loads on their own due to natural resistance. Only about 20-30% of horses carry heavy parasite loads. Thus each horse should be dewormed based upon an understanding of his own personal resistance to parasites. The best recommendation is now 2-4 dewormings a year based upon knowing which horses carry lots of parasites and which tend to carry little parasite load.

The deworming program should be based upon location and the horse's own resistance to parasites. The new recommendation is 2-4 dewormings per year based upon fecal egg counts used to determine the normal amount of egg shedding each horse does during the time of year when the weather in your area is most conducive to strongyle larva development and environmental survival. In periods where temperatures remain below 45 degrees, deworming can be stopped as the strongyle larva don't mature into the infective 3rd stage larva. And in periods where temperatures remain above 85 degrees for extended periods, deworming can be discontinued because the infective strongyle larva don't survive long on pastures. So for those two different types of weather the reinfection rates are very low.

You also need to be SURE you are not under dosing your horses so always use a weight tape or measure your horse and calculate his weight. In studies even many vets were way off on weight estimations and they have the benefit of spending a few years working in situations where they get to walk horses onto scales daily to see what 900 lbs LOOKS LIKE.

Weight calculation information:
Body Weight Estimation of Horses KG calculation shown as well as a chart based upon heart girth measure (remember, the heart girth only assessment may be off by as much as 200 lbs just like weight tapes)
Horse Weight: Estimate It Easily How to calculate in pounds