Worms

domane

domane

Retired cob mum
Jul 31, 2005
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They say "20% of horses carry 80% of worms". Gracie had been regularly wormed since I bought her 2.5yrs ago, but always has a worm burden (she always has a poo check first). I guess this may be either bad luck, or a poor start to her life - which I'll never know. Jack rarely had any worms when tested.

Do you worm count or just treat regularly?
 
Worm count first as my previous yard owner insisted on a wormer for Faran when I brought him to the yard. I said I wasn’t immediately worming a baby who had just been weaned, put through a sale the driven 6 hrs on a lorry and put into a stable at 2am that morning. He would have been at high risk of a colic. I said I’d worm count him then see how he was. She went ballistic. I asked her if she was paying my vet bill if he colicked and of he died was she giving me his price as well as paying the disposal? She said no so I said my decisions stands.

I worm counted him and low and behold it came back as 0. She was not happy and I was feeling rather smug. He was in a field alone with kia who also had no worm burden for three weeks and I counted him again before he went into the herd after Kia passed away.

Worming for no reason serves no purpose and can harm more then it helps IMO :)
 
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I always count Harvey. I see no point putting chemicals into him that aren't needed (he has always come back as 0) and there is the increasing resistance issue. I do use a wormer in the Winter for redworm.
 
I do a bit of both, used to worm count really regularly and had got them all down to regularly 'no eggs seen' for some years
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so went to infrequent testing and just wormed twice a year for encysted and tapes. But I ought to have been testing more in the last year, Dan came in riddled so I just wormed him a few times last summer then carried on as normal. But the spring test this year showed high counts so they all got an extra dose (a group test didn't seem a silly idea at the time as I've had 0's for so long, lesson learnt!) I must take more samples in soon.
 
I worm count and worm accordingly,worm for encysted in winter. Every 3rd or 4th i seem to get a random medium to high on Torin but usually low no treatment needed.

At work we had 5 for 5 years of worm counting, 2 of those 5 changed but Ross was a constant and was always medium to high at every count while the others 80% of the time were 0. Same paddocks,same management etc but he always carried the worms. Now down to 3 and Bally seems to be the one this last 2 tests thay is carrying at medium counts after always been low! The other 2 are low no treatments needed. It's interesting but also very random!
 
I worm count 3 times a year and have bloods done for tapes twice a year. I don't do an FEC in winter as I'll be worming for encysted anyway, though I'll be asking my vet's opinion on Westgates new test for encysteds. On the rare occasion I do have to worm I'll then do a winter FEC and if that comes back clear then discuss with my vet if worming for encysted is necessary, the reason being that he'll have already had a 5 Day Guard since it's about the only wormer he doesn't have a reaction to.
 
I have no choice we are on a programs on the yard but will confess to not giving every one as I don’t think it is needed. I still pay for treatment we aren’t allowed to go with the work count and treat. Our yard charges the wormer to our bill and it is always ever priced as well more so as they buy on bulk for the riding school and get it cheaper as the get it retail to sell in the shop.

It makes us all angry but that is the rules
 
@OwnedbyChanter I wonder if that's even legal given that wormers should only be sold by a suitably qualified person? If a horse reacted badly and there was a big vet bill I suspect they could be on dodgy ground.
 
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