Foals and worming

[eventrider23]

As title says really...thought I'd ask all the breeding buffs out there what they're reccomendations are on worming foals. How old to first worm and what with, etc. My friend's foal is now 3 months and thus now getting to that age where we've got to start and I was wondering what you guys would be using, etc.

 

[Fahrenheit]

Eqvalan is my favourite for foals, although we have a set 3 year rotating worming program.
Because I have quite alot of foals we worm on set dates and do all the mares plus all the foals that are over a certain age (ie 6 weeks) if you have less foals you can tailor the worming to fit each foal better, but we have 17 foals this year so we are worming on 1st July, 1st September and 1st November (all mums and babies 6wks +) then they join the adult program. It does mean that some foals are a few weeks older when when they have first worming than others but touch wood it has worked for us, they also swap field 48hours after worming onto a clean field (usually but the river severn ate my land this year

so its abit of a pickle field rotation wise this year!). All the mares are wormed when they come in to foal as well.

 

[eventrider23]

Cheers for that HG, I will set out and get my Eqvalan - that is what I was thinking of doing so you've confirmed what I thought. We are lucky as have only got a few horses on quite a bit of land and so all the hosrse are rotated and wormed accordingly so all others are up to date, etc.

 

[springfallstud]

I use Eqvalan for foals too

 

[henryhorn]

Our vet has said eqvalan or panacur Guard to start with at any age after 4 weeks.
He advised not using anything like equest/pramox etc until they are older.
We had a worm blood test on William and it was negligable, vet said it was up to us if we wanted to worm as it was very low so we did .
I tend to keep on top of the mare's worming more so than some of the others, as their systems have so much to cope with. this year however we are giving breeding a rest..

 

[Shark]

Foals should be wormed from 4 weeks as they carry a heavy worm burden, be careful using anything more than panacur on young foals as this can cause problems, at 6 months old is the best time to use a stronger wormer like Eqvalan, Pyratape P etc

 

[Tia]

I always worm the mare with Ivermectin within 12 hours of foaling, mainly to prevent scouring of the foal.

The foal is then wormed at 6 weeks old (I use Safeguard however I don't believe this is a particularly good wormer, but at least it is a safe one for little foals) and once a month thereafter until about 7 months old and then I relax it to fit in with my regular worming schedule of all other horses on the farm.

I do not use Equest on my farm.

 

[Damien]

We worm our mares before foaling with an ivermectin based wormer to treat for thread worm that often causes scouring in foals, many believe that scouring at foalie heat is common but vet assures me that it is caused by the passing of thread worm via trhe mares milk.Having adopted this program we no longer have scouring foals at foalie heat so Ill take his wrd for it at the moment.
We then worm the foals at two/three weeks of age with equimax as most of the others are not recomended for use other than Strongid earlier than six weeks. We then worm at regular 4 week intervals on some of our pastures but on others much less frequently as the pastures are rotated and cross grazed with sheep. At two months we address tape worm so use a pyrantel-based wormer. At weaning we always double dose the foals with strongid prior to leaving for their new homes.