Worming help needed - any ideas welcome!

Meowy Catkin

Meowy Catkin

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I am feeling a mixture of frustration and hopelessness. :(

At the moment I'm treating my horses with 5 day Panacur. Yesterday was day 1 (of 5) and they all ate up well. I'd mixed some crushed extra strong mints in with their feed and I was pleased that this had seemed to disguise the taste of the wormer.

Today, the girls ate it (although one was super slow) but the gelding took one sniff and said 'no way.' I have about a zero chance of syringing it into him... in fact a minus number is probably more accurate as he's getting worse and worse with syringes. I think that a bit type easy wormer would work once, then he'd have learnt about it and become bit shy. If you met him and saw how quick he is to associate negative experiences, you'd understand why I think that. Honestly I'm not being a wimp or a drama queen, this is not a horse that can be bullied or easily tricked, he's too damn clever. :mad:

So any ideas? What flavours are irresistible and disguise 'nasty' medicines to the degree that he'll eat it for the next four days?

Please help. *sobs*
 
I have had success with ground/powdered mint before

Could you try leaving him with the feed for a while? One of mine wouldn't touch medicated feed but when he realised that nothing better was forthcoming he ate it grumpily over the course of a few hours
 
And as WelshD says, try it in the night feed. My big fella turns his nose up at 'adulterated' feed but it's usually gone in the morning!
 
They live out, but I could try putting him in his stable with it and no haynet. I wonder if he'd eat it eventually? I can give it a go.
 
Panacur guard is supposed to have a smell of cinnamon and apple, surprised he doesnt like it, mix it with that feed he isnt normally allowed like pasture mix or something irresistable, borrow some from a friend you only need a hful each time. I found if i left the feed bowl in the stable by the next day it had been eaten up.

i wouldnt leave him with nothing though if he is to stay in all night
 
I wont be leaving him in all night - don't worry - as I said they live out. I think it's worth bringing him in for an hour or so with nothing else to eat, to see if that's enough to persuade him. TBH if he didn't eat any after an hour or so, I wouldn't expect him to eat it at all. When I first had him, he wouldn't eat any hard feed at all. Slowly he's come around to eating some hard feeds, the key seemed to be discovering that he likes oats. I used oats in the mix with the panacur. I've ordered some mint, so I'll probably have to restart the course with him when it arrives. I am awaiting a phone call from the Vet incase they have any ideas too.
 
Mine was the same with the 5 day guard. Ate it the first day, told me it was poison the next. He is also really hard to worm as he will not tolerate a syringe dose anywhere near him. But, I can do it with the easy wormer bit.
Put the easy wormer bit on the horse. Then groom, or do anything else that will relax your horse. I usually do a good groom for about half an hour. Then I hide the syringe along the underside of my arm and very quickly squirt it in the bit. Doing it this way means he does not associate the bit going in with the worm dose. Because I do egg counts etc. I normally only have to worm dose twice a year, and can use the tablets for one of those, so the worming bit is not overused. I agree it could be an issue if you had to do this every few weeks.
 
This is a young unbitted horse, so I don't want his first experiences of bits to be negative ones.

Nothing is ever simple.

Can you get spot on wormers for horses? If not - why not?
 
Faracat, mine have a Super Supplement: Garlic, Parsley & linseed oil liquid added to their feeds all year round, with just a light drizzle, not fed at recco's amounts.
I have never had one refuse to eat a feed with it in, it masks so much (bute, 5 day etc).
As they get 'something' in a bucket at least once a day all year round, I dont have a problem in getting things down (types TFF with fingers xx'd as have been feeding the additive for yrs to varying horses and ponies)

:)
 
OK, maybe I should stop the panacur with him, investigate feed supplements that are super tasty to him and then try worming once I've got a better chance of getting him to eat it for the five days.

He does get a small feed daily with vits&mins. He is the least greedy horse I've ever known, which I think adds to the problem.
 
I asked the vet about spot on wormers. Apparently it's because horse skin is thicker than cows/sheep/cats/dogs, so the wormer wouldn't be absorbed properly. Maybe your vet could give an ivermectin injection?
 
He's a sod to inject too thanks to a course of cobactan injections in the past. :( We had to distract him so that he could be vaccinated this year. Maybe it's an option if the Vet who vaccinated him was willing?

It's a good job that he's brilliant in other ways.

ETA - he's fine skinned... maybe fine skinned enough for spot ons? I wonder how I could find out?
 
FWIW, I don't buy the argument that horse's skin is thicker and more difficult to penetrate than a cow's, have you ever tried injecting a cow? And how come cattle will run through barbed wire without breaking skin? Or why is cattle electric fencing much stronger than horse?
 
I don't know. I haven't personally measured the thickness of a horse's skin, I can only go by what others (who are supposed to know more than I do) say.
 
I know how you feel, it`s a nightmare isn`t it.

My 'trick' was to change how my boy thinks about worming. I couldn`t use the wormer bit as he hates bits anyway, and is ridden bitless so that wouldn`t have worked, and like yours he is quick to form negative associations. I cleaned up some old wormer syringes (really cleaned them to get rid of any traces) and filled them with apple sauce (the cheap mushy kind) ... I took carrots, apples, the pot of sauce, and various other treats, i did this regularly over time (over the space of a few weeks), gradually introducing the wormer syringe from up my sleeve, covered in apple sauce, a bit at a time, full of 'nice' stuff ... and it was offered intermittently, mingled in with the other treats, and he could chew it, throw it, bite it, lick it etc, it got to the point where he would take it in his mouth happily (to have the contents syringed in) .... A bit of healthy competition from my other pony helped too, he`s very much 'in charge' of any food ;) ......

It`s now at the point where he willing takes any syringe, and on 'worming' days, he`ll have treats first, then a couple of nice ones interspersed with apple/carrot etc (in no order he can get used to) , followed by the wormer (that has been pre dunked in apple sauce) ... He does tend to look a bit confused as he gets the wormer one lol ..... but i always have apple and carrot handy (as above, it`s all mingled in) and as the wormer one is a tiny fraction of the other nice treats that happen a lot more often, so % wise, it is quickly forgotten :)

It does mean doing a bit of leg work, and remembering to be consistent with the nice stuff, so the one off nasty wormer is forgotten :)
 
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