dewormer

[romainchu78]

Hello, my 11 years old gelding has a dull skin color and still has some of his winter coat. We live in the south in Arkansas. Our mare horse almost dropped her winter coat but not our gelding. He has been on a rotational dewormer all last year (1 tube every 2 months) with a broad spectrum of dewormers including Ivermectin and Praziquantel for tape worms. He doesn't show any signs of colic, lethargy, weight lose or any health issues so far except may be he is losing a bit of his mane but he also rub his mane against the tube fence to access to hay. For 2018, we didn't resume the schedule until last week when we gave him 1 dose of Pyrantel Pamoate and plan on getting him back on schedule. I am going to give him this week to see if his color coat comes back but if it doesn't what should i do? just give him 1 tube of Fenbendazole or give him a power pack?

 

[SEL]

Do you have a local lab or vet practice who could look at a poo sample under the microscope for you and identify what worms / parasites are showing? Then you'll know what you're dealing with and can choose the right drug.

 

[wkiwi]

Using dewormers at regular intervals (e.g. every two months) is no longer recommended due to the resistance problems with the drugs i.e. the drugs don't work as well against worms anymore and as there are only a few different drug families it can become a big problem.
If you google 'strategic deworming horses' you should find plenty of information on how to target a deworming programme. I think the BHS has a booklet online that gives lots of information on deworming and other worm control methods.
Also, get egg counts done (and saliva check for tapeworms) to see if yours is a high shedder and talk to your vet about which drugs to use. If you keep changing the drug family (active ingredient) through the year then you can get worms that are resistant to (survive) all of the drug families.
You could always get the vet to give him a health check - that way you could find out whether it is something else instead of a worm problem, and you could discuss a deworming strategy at the same time.

 

[Nudibranch]

Just one of many possibilities but without further info, seeing that he is slow to shed and has dull skin would make me consider PPID. Does he drink much?