Worming plans, who /what do you all do?

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scewal

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I have been using a certain company for the last year, however at nearly £12 a month it seems very costly. How do you plan your worming?
 
I don't know where you keep your horse, but mine have all been at home, are poo picked 3 X a day, and worm counted. We have been on a zero count for more than 10 years, and only worm twice a year to cover Tapeworm, Bots and if we have any encysted redworm remaining.

The test is cheaper than worming!
 
My mare is kept at a private yard in individual turnout with 3 different paddocks that i have sole use. She had one really high egg worm count last year hence me using the company. I poo pick every day, and her egg counts have been either very low or no eggs seen since.
 
Red-1 said:
I don't know where you keep your horse, but mine have all been at home, are poo picked 3 X a day, and worm counted. We have been on a zero count for more than 10 years, and only worm twice a year to cover Tapeworm, Bots and if we have any encysted redworm remaining.

The test is cheaper than worming!
Click to expand...

^this^ although not quite 10 years :-)
 
scewal said:
My mare is kept at a private yard in individual turnout with 3 different paddocks that i have sole use. She had one really high egg worm count last year hence me using the company. I poo pick every day, and her egg counts have been either very low or no eggs seen since.
Click to expand...

So why don't you just do a worm count every 12 weeks with Westgate? They'll advise if you have a medium count and need to worm.
 
The tape worm will not be reliably detected on a faecal egg count, I believe there is a blood test, but TBH I don't mind 2 wormers a year, and as we need bots and encysted covered anyway, the blood test is not worth the extra cost.

As we have been on Zero for so long, and we use 2 wormers a year, I have now cut the tests to one a year. Obviously if my horse looked other than "normal" I would do another test.

As an aside, I am doing the same with my dog. Faecal worm count, and seperate lung worm count. Tests cheaper than wormers, and zero count this time for him too :-). He is still on tests every 6 months until we are sure it is all stable.
 
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Defo once, the second depends on what wormer he has. Maybe I am complacent, but as we have been zero for so long for all other worms I cannot imagine we have rampaging tapeworm. Our vet is happy with the situation.

As you have exclusive use of pasture you may be interested to know that when we added a new horse we blitzed as in double tapeworm and 5 day course in a short space of time whilst on arena turnout. Thereafter poo picking at pasture has kept it clean for any that were missed.
 
Red-1 said:
I don't know where you keep your horse, but mine have all been at home, are poo picked 3 X a day, and worm counted. We have been on a zero count for more than 10 years, and only worm twice a year to cover Tapeworm, Bots and if we have any encysted redworm remaining.

The test is cheaper than worming!
Click to expand...

^^^^^ This is me too
 
Thanks very much for your help. Will cancel my subscription and do 3 monthly egg counts plus worm twice yearly for tapeworm and accordingly to the lab results.
 
for fifteen years now I have po picked (most) days, done worm counts and wormed accordingly, apart from tapeworm which I just worm for twice yearly. i only pay £5 per count as a long time patron to the company.
 
scewal said:
I have been using a certain company for the last year, however at nearly £12 a month it seems very costly. How do you plan your worming?
Click to expand...

On my yard we have recently started doing worm counts. I send everyone sample off every three months and it comes back with how money eggs were found etc and which horse does or doesn't need worming. We worm once a year for tapeworm as we rotate regularly and don't have a high turnover of horses anyway. Seems to be working well so far and at £7.50 per horse is cheaper than worming and also means we are not unnecessarily giving our horse chemicals they don't need.
 
Yes indeed I don't want to give wormer if not needed, however I was given 5 wormers over the 1 year period even although her egg counts were 225 at the highest, one clear, one at 75 and the other at 50. To me she didn't need half of the wormers. But I have reached my 1 year contract so can now pull out.
 
The new tapeworm saliva test is a fantastic step forward for worm control. My lot are part of a trial at present, being tested every fortnight so that we can get more information about tapeworm infections. The results are confidential at present but suffice to say that one pony had a surprise burden despite having been wormed with praziquantel in March. We are now able to get on top of this and study the ongoing results. Previously I would have been unaware of the problem which could easily lead to colic and other problems.

I quite agree scewal, horses with low worm counts do not need dosing. Now that we have a reliable tapeworm test some horses will only need their winter dose for encysted redworm, good, responsible worm control.

The days of bunging in wormers to all horses every few weeks should be well and truly over.
 
I'm about to do a FEC as when wormed two weeks ago there was not a single worm, no tape, bots or anything else! Was quite disappointing as I was hoping to collect something for my Pony Club kids to view.

This year the Equidays Pony Club Camp kids will be doing their own worm counts from scratch, collecting the sample, making up the solution to float the eggs and then counting them selves under a microscope.
 
That sounds very enterprising Tnavas, and interesting for the kids. Be aware that simple floatation methods are quite a crude tool. Samples sent to the lab are prepared using a centrifuge and the results are much more reliable.
Children and poo, always a happy mixture!
 
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