wormers - under-dose or re-dose?

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Does anyone know what the real margin for error is in worming a horse?

I've just "double dosed" mine for tapes. One horse gives no problems. The other hates being wormed, I end up with paste everywhere. So I tried the easy wormer - but it doesn't help somehow he still manages not to swallow and, when I removed the thing, it was still covered in loads of paste
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So I tried to give enough for a 600kg horse and reckon my horse really weighs about 525-550. I'd guess he probably actually swallowed enough for a 800kg horse (single dose) or 400kg at tapeworm double- doses and we wasted the rest. So - is it enough, do I have to worm again (How!) and when is it safe to give more? Does anyone know?

Thanks
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It doesn't matter if you overworm as it is considered better than underworming but I am not sure by how much is safe. I have a horse who is about 625-650KG and as most wormers only go up to 600KG body weight it is annoying to have to buy another wormer off the yard and waste the rest. Me and other large horse owners used to use up the remainder of the contents of small ponies wormers that they had thrown in the bin and would share them out amongst the bigger horses but now the yard gives us an extra unused wormer to share between our horses. I know this isn't ideal due to possible contamination of viruses but to be honest they all live under the same roof so if they are going to catch something they will anyway.

I hold my horses tongue and pull it to one side to ensure the wormer goes right the way down, but my horse is quite amenable anyway. I wouldn't fancy my chances doing that with some horses on our yard!!!
 
There is a HUGE margin for error in worming horses - you could almost give them a bucketful of the stuff. The only ones who have to be ultra careful are the minature breeds, and I think that is only with Equest - deaths have been reported in the US.

My mare is a swine to tube worm. I successfully worm the floor, the ceiling and the walls but not her! The answer is Strongid-P granules. Even old Fussy Chops still clears her feed up with a double dose in.
 
try the equimax tabs. mine is well lets say not easy to worm!!! tried the placebo ones then tried the real thing once she had eaten them, the easiest worming i have have done! and yes there is a huge margian for error about well over 5x should say on the packet.
 
Even more surprised to hear they work - did she really take them easily? Certainly worth a try if she did - worming the stable instead of the horse certainly can't be effective
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Better to give slightly more than not enough.

I am lucky all my horses have happily eaten it when mixed with some apples and carrots in their feed. I do stay to make sure it is gone just in case but they have never spat any out or left feed, and this is my TBs as well as my hairy beasties.
 
It is always better to over dose than underdose. Under dosing can cause wormer resistence. There is a big margin for over dosing, but varies with each wormer. I recently gave a 500Kg dose instead of a 125Kg dose, rang vet and makers, both said no worries. mare was indeed fine.
 
I need help with worming full stop how do you know what to worm with and when its driving me crazy trying to figure it all out.. what is safe and what shoudl i stay away from..... any suggestions my mare is on the large side so have to spend double the money of extra syringes and i often think im just throwing my money away!! help anyone
 
Agreed better to overdose than underdose. I once gave my 13hh mare an entire syringe full becasue by the time i'd wrestled with her to get the syringe in her mouth, the tab measuring the amount had come off, so she got the whole lot. Underdosing just leads to resistance, so always better to overdose.

Horsedreamer, what do you want to worm for? Do you just want a general worming programme? If you google horse wormers, equest or such like, it'll give you the dosing schedule and info like that.
 
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