November 20, 2008

DEWORMING

With the many safe, convenient products available today, establishing an effective deworming program is easy. There are many different types of deworming programs that you can use, depending on your specific management practices, “traffic” of horses in and out, and available turnout space. It is very important to rotate your dewormers to prevent drug resistant parasites. It is also important when rotating the dewormers to rotate different classes of drugs, not just brand names.

*Dewormers lose there potency at 60 days (every 2 months), so we recommend deworming your horse at this interval. Listed below is a common rotation that we would normally recommend:

  1. Ivermectin (ie. **Eqvalan)
  2. Fenbendazole (ie. **Panacur)
  3. Pyrantel Pamoate (ie. **Stongid P)
  4. Ivermectin Praziquantel

*Foals should start being dewormed at approx 1 month and should be treated once per month until they are approx. 1 year old. **There are other brand names that may apply. It is also recommended to deworm your horse once per year with Bronchi to kill tapeworms. This does not replace one of the above dewormers.

Optional:

One of the current views on parasitology is that some horses have a better immune system than other horses in their ability to deal with parasites. It has been suggested that routine fecal exams (every 3 months) from all horses can establish if, or when, a problem may occur in specific horses. Once the parasites have been identified, they can be targeted and eliminated through treatment and management of the specific horse(s).


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