To worm or not to worm?

[Mrskyfall]

Hi all,

I normally worm my two horses with Pramox in December, so I know I've treated bots and encysted red worm etc. However, I thought that the cold weather caused the bots and other nasties to begin their lifecycle, so if I worm now, due to the very mild weather, it may not treat them as they won't have started their lifecycle. Should I worm or not?

 

[be positive]

This is the time to use pramox to treat tapeworms and encysted redworm, the reason we try and wait until after there has been a good frost has less to do with beginning the life cycle but more to try and ensure the horses are not picking up more worms in the grazing, the frost may help kill off the worms, I think it makes sense to do them now as we may never get any frost and the dangerous encysted worms will start to emerge at some point.
Most wormers will treat bots to kill them off before they have a chance of continuing their lifecycle and it will help reduce the numbers in your area, I hardly see any now unlike years ago when they were always hanging around in summer.

 

[Mrskyfall]

Thank you so much. That makes sense about the frost killing the worms. I will worm them.