WORMER RECOMMENDATIONS

A

allthatjazz

Active Member
Joined
7 June 2011
Messages
42
Location
West Midlands
Visit site
As it says really, can anyone recommend a good wormer? Have been using Equest up until now which is great but have been advised that we should rotate our wormers so that horses dont become resistant? Any recs with websites to buy from would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Most important is to use the wormers at the right time and in the right circumstances. If that doesnt happen, rotating wormers can increase instead of decrease resistance.

There is a current thread on HHO where this is explained really well (unfortunately it is quite complicated but theres no way round that). The key bit is once you have wormed, dont immediately shift the horse to fresh pasture as there will always be a proportion of worms resistant to the wormer you used and if you do move them straight away all of the worms in the new pasture will be resistant.

Your current Equest will worm for a wide range of worms incl the dangerous small encysted redworm. Having used it for a while you definitely now need one or two worm counts to assess the continuing general effectiveness of that wormer on your horse.

Have you been testing for (blood test by vet) or worming for tapeworm too? Equest will not cover tapeworm and nor will the worm counts and the incidence of tapeworm is on the rise. Pramox is Equest plus tapewormer, and you would use this in the late autumn/winter. (and it would only be suitable if horse in good health as its quite a blast being a combined wormer and only suitable if the active ingredient in Equest is shown by low or zero worm counts to be still effective on your horses worms).

If Equest isnt still working to keep the worms down when you do the worm counts (Westgate labs is the one I use, your vet may also offer this service) , then as well as a tapewormer (eg Equitape) in the winter you would need to catch the small encysted redworms (and the other general ones) in the autumn with something that like equest targets these worms but which has an active ingredient which doesnt have resistance issues which would be Panacur 5 Day Equine Guard

I hope this is some help. I would hesistate to offer advice as in shops only 'trained staff' can do this with wormers but having generally been given very poor advice (ie conflicting, wrong or very confused) advice by such 'trained' staff I realised I needed to become more knowledgeable myself.

These two links are very useful for learning about the different worms
http://www.wormers-direct.co.uk/typesofworms/redworms.html
(note this is the redworm tab, you need to click the other headings to see the other worm types)
This is how to check whether the wormer you are considering moving to has the same active ingredient as the one you are moving from (also handy for fiding cheaper versions of the well known brand names with the same ingredients)
http://www.wormers-direct.co.uk/ingredients.html
http://www.wormers-direct.co.uk/ingredients.html

Make sure you do not underdose your horse as that way you are certain to allow some worms to survive and increase resistance to the drugs.

good luck!
 
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to reply in such detail it is very much appreciated! :) We use Pramox in Spring/Autumn to worm for tape and my boy had the Panacur 5 day wormer about 6 months ago too. So generally it is Equest twice a year and Pramox twice a year. I'm not really sure why we had to use the Panacur wormer too but it was at YO's request so had to follow suit. I've never had a worm count done, wasn't sure how complicated it was to send off and get results etc? It would be interesting to know though as we do keep to a strict worming regime. The links you have posted are certainly food for thought, I shall digest the information and go from there! And will give Hadrian Equine a call too; have heard good things about them from other people too! :)
 
allthatjazz said:
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to reply in such detail it is very much appreciated! :) We use Pramox in Spring/Autumn to worm for tape and my boy had the Panacur 5 day wormer about 6 months ago too. So generally it is Equest twice a year and Pramox twice a year. I'm not really sure why we had to use the Panacur wormer too but it was at YO's request so had to follow suit. I've never had a worm count done, wasn't sure how complicated it was to send off and get results etc? It would be interesting to know though as we do keep to a strict worming regime. The links you have posted are certainly food for thought, I shall digest the information and go from there! And will give Hadrian Equine a call too; have heard good things about them from other people too! :)
Click to expand...

It would certainly be odd to be using Panacur on top of 2x Equest and 2xPramox in a year, you would use either the drug in Equest/pramox for redworm OR the one in Panacur5, and would switch normally only if a worm count or horse health/visible worms suggested that resistance was becoming an issue with the one you were using. Using both concurrently doesnt really leave anywhere to go in terms of active incgredients as they are the only two there are for some worm types! Panacur 5 day is also sometimes used instead as it is gentler, eg for pregnant mares. I wonder if your YO thinks there is some resistance, really need to establish that before working out future worming plans.

Worm count is easy (I get a 4 test annual multipack from Westgate which has a wormer year planner, disposable gloves, little plastic boxes (matchbox size) for the sample, labels and padded envelope for sending it off. You just fill the little box with poo (one box per horse), label with their name and send them off in the padded envelope. Results usually same day they receive the sample and I get mine via email. Generally you get a low (zero or under 50 eggs, medium or high reading - if high you should worm now, if medium then you need to decide whether to worm based on all the factors). If low (esp if a repeated low result) then you should not need to worm, other than the once annual encysted redworm dose and a dose for tapeworm once or twice a year if you choose not to blood test for that. (These two together are what the Pramox is addressing).

Have fun with your worm-y investigations!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top