How Often is Too Often to Worm?

[SportPonyCrayzi]

Well...the title says it all.

I was just wondering about it.

Also, would it hurt a horse if you did an extra worming in between his usuals??? I'm thinking Mack might have worms because of his watery poop, so I wasn't sure if I should go ahead and worm or not. I worm him every 3 months and rotate wormers.

[Sue B]

How often you worm really depends on where you live and the conditions the horse is kept in. If you are in a consistanly mild climate, then worming would be more often. If you live in a climate with harsh winters, this breaks the cycles and thus allows for less worming. If the horse is pastured alone on at least 2 or more acres, this would help prevent worm overloads. If they are in a large herd that allows less than an acre per head, then there is much more chance of an overload. If the horse is constantly stalled or dry loted and has no access to grass, then there is little likelyhood of more than light infestations....unless the horse is unhealthy. When confronted with other infections or illness, the body's capabilities to resist overloads becomes compromised allowing internal parasites to take over.

It is recommended that a 6 week schedule be the max and there is much controversy over what is the min. I know of people with ideal conditions that use fecals to determine if they should worm and they sometimes only do so every 2-3 years. Others use schedules of 2-4 times/year.

If you are on a well spaced schedule, then it will not harm the horse to have an extra dose in the middle of the cycle.

[Xiphias]

Sandra gave great advice. My mare is on 3 acres here at home for 9 years, 9 of them years she had a pony companion, we did lease a gelding for a year and a half, but he came from a place where he was only with one other horse on 5 acres of pasture, and was up to date on his worming schedule....fecals showed that none of my horses were infested, I worm my horses every 12 weeks....Cathy

[Madick]

If you are worried, why don't take a fec count or if it's tapes you're worried about, then take a bloodtest. Then you can faster rule out worms (or fix it fast) and move on to other theories.

[Jig]

Actually, my vet suggested you worm before winter twice and it takes everything out. She said for me to use ivercare once and then strongid a week later. But that's just what she told me.

A boarders horse at my barn has been loosing weight and the owner dosed her atleast 3 times to make sure it was all out of her. I don't think you can overworm with just another dose.

[probarrelracer]

When I buy a new horse, I worm every 14 days for two months, then every 12 weeks.

[ejforrest]

If you live in a hot climate you need to deworm 6 times a year and do a FEC(fecel egg count) to see what is working on your horse and what the parasites are becoming resistant to.
Suggested deworming program for a hot climate*If you live in a cold climate, the ideas behind the program will be the same, but the cycle is different, the first treatment should be given in April and the last treatment can be given in November).
*Sept.- Do a FEC. September starts the worm control cycle and you should treat all horses after a FEC with ivermectin or moxidectin. These drugs kill migrating large and small strongyles in the intestinal lumen.
*Nov.- Treat all horses with FEC. If ivermectin was used in September, treat again with ivermectin. If moxidectin was used, wait until December to treat.
(use oxibendazole/pyrantel if effective on your farm. Chose these drugs to use together(same time) to help slow the resistance to ivermectin and moxidectin. Recent data suggest that using oxibendazole and pyrantel together improves the effectiveness of treatment over treatment with individual druges)
*Dec.- Do a FEC. Treat all horses with ivermectin/praziquantel or moxidectin/praziquantle. Tapeworm transmission peaks in autumn, so treatment with praziquantel at this time to remove all the tapeworms acquired over the summer months. Praziquantel is the only FDA-approved drug for tapeworms in horses and is only available in combination with ivermectin and moxidectin.
*Feb.- Do a FEC. If you treated with moxidectin/praziquantel in December, wait until March to treat. If the horse is known to be a chronically high egg shedder use moxidectin for all hoses if not used in December.
*March.- Use oxibendazole/pyranel on horses with FEC greater than 150 g.
*April.- Treat only horses with FEC greater than 150 epg. The drugs used will depend on which drugs were used for previous treatments.
Preform a FEC on all horses. This is the last treatment of the cycle and the last time you will need to perform a FEC until September. This FEC will give you a good indicator of how well you have done controlling worms this year.
More information on:
Parasite Control Programs for Mature Horses
www.thehorse.com/printarticle.apsx?ID=5271

[Lou3]

Bear in mind that FECs are NOT accurate for an individual horse, they are only a ROUGH estimate of the overall herd health status and for groups of less than ten horses are very inaccurate. For owners with only one or two horses they may as well not bother except in cases of clinical signs arising from a suspected worm burden.

If you have de-wormed recently you may have what is known as a post-worming emergence where the larval forms that are resistant to the anthelmintics emerge when the de-worming clears out the existing adult worms from the host. If this is the case you will need to dose again.

[Madick]

I would say the totally opposite! It is for the individual horse you do the FEC. You'll soon see a pattern, if your horse always sheds lots of eggs, or is a strong individual that can keep it's own control.

Most horses DO have own strong control over parasites.

Or do you mean that you only take group FECs? I never do that, only individual.

[Madick]

If you live in a hot climate you need to deworm 6 times a year and do a FEC(fecel egg count) to see what is working on your horse and what the parasites are becoming resistant to.
Suggested deworming program for a hot climate*If you live in a cold climate, the ideas behind the program will be the same, but the cycle is different, the first treatment should be given in April and the last treatment can be given in November).
*Sept.- Do a FEC. September starts the worm control cycle and you should treat all horses after a FEC with ivermectin or moxidectin. These drugs kill migrating large and small strongyles in the intestinal lumen.
*Nov.- Treat all horses with FEC. If ivermectin was used in September, treat again with ivermectin. If moxidectin was used, wait until December to treat.
(use oxibendazole/pyrantel if effective on your farm. Chose these drugs to use together(same time) to help slow the resistance to ivermectin and moxidectin. Recent data suggest that using oxibendazole and pyrantel together improves the effectiveness of treatment over treatment with individual druges)
*Dec.- Do a FEC. Treat all horses with ivermectin/praziquantel or moxidectin/praziquantle. Tapeworm transmission peaks in autumn, so treatment with praziquantel at this time to remove all the tapeworms acquired over the summer months. Praziquantel is the only FDA-approved drug for tapeworms in horses and is only available in combination with ivermectin and moxidectin.
*Feb.- Do a FEC. If you treated with moxidectin/praziquantel in December, wait until March to treat. If the horse is known to be a chronically high egg shedder use moxidectin for all hoses if not used in December.
*March.- Use oxibendazole/pyranel on horses with FEC greater than 150 g.
*April.- Treat only horses with FEC greater than 150 epg. The drugs used will depend on which drugs were used for previous treatments.
Preform a FEC on all horses. This is the last treatment of the cycle and the last time you will need to perform a FEC until September. This FEC will give you a good indicator of how well you have done controlling worms this year.
More information on:
Parasite Control Programs for Mature Horses
www.thehorse.com/printarticle.apsx?ID=5271

This sounds totaly backwards! If you live in a cold climate the infestation takes place during summer, and it's THEN you deworm to keep the eggs away from the grass. During winter in a cold climate, the bloodworms won't be touched by dewormers, or in even worse cases, you will create a massawakening that can be fatal to the horse.