How to Make Deworming More Effective

The topic I would like to share to you today is on deworming. How do you make the process more effective? Read on. 

Not a lot of horse owners find it easy to deworm their horse, especially for beginners. However, if you are adept at delivering the worming paste into your horse’s mouth using the best technique, it might still remain futile of you don’t try to check if his mouth is not empty.

Deworming is an essential component of horse care. Horses are susceptible to worms especially if they are left in the pasture to graze. That does not mean though that horses should not be turned out – turnout is as important as well. It is just one of those inevitable circumstances when equine parasites are there to exist and the only control you can give is by managing your horse’s environment properly. And there’s use of wormers as well. Many horse owners use the conventional oral paste formulation when deworming their horses. However, this can pose as an inconvenient method for those who are not so skilled in using the syringe and making the horse submit during deworming.  However, there’s one tip that you can use to make sure you are doing the right thing when it comes to deworming.

About ten minutes before you give the dewormer to your horse, you need to cut off access from grain or forage. Doing so will clear his mouth of any partially-chewed feed and will not encourage spitting of the medication.  Either you need to remove the feeder or just tie him up and make sure he can’t reach his feed.  If you believe that he is still chewing the last bite, just open his mouth carefully and place your fingers in toothless bars, much like what you do when you are inserting a bit. Apply a little pressure on the tongue to make him swallow. If there is a need to use a catheter-tip syringe, do so to flush oral contents with water.

When you are certain that his mouth is clear of feed or bit, you can give the medication and wait a couple of minutes to make sure that the medication does not come back to be spitted out. Keep in mind though, that equine dewormer in paste formulation are made to be extra sticky so it has the ability to stick to the roof of the mouth; therefor, it does not happen very often that it will escape the mouth.

White Horses

Excerpts from White Horses by Rudyard Kipling

credits to Layoutsparks.com

Where run your colts at pasture?

Where hide your mares to breed?

'Mid bergs about the Ice-cap

Or wove Sargasso weed;

By chartless reef and channel,

Or crafty coastwise bars,

But most the ocean-meadows

All purple to the stars!

Who holds the rein upon you?

The latest gale let free.

What meat is in your mangers?

The glut of all the sea.

'Twixt tide and tide's returning

Great store of newly dead, --

The bones of those that faced us,

And the hearts of those that fled.

Afar, off-shore and single,

Some stallion, rearing swift,

Neighs hungry for new fodder,

And calls us to the drift:

Then down the cloven ridges --

A million hooves unshod --

Break forth the mad White Horses

To seek their meat from God!

Girth-deep in hissing water

Our furious vanguard strains --

Through mist of mighty tramplings

Roll up the fore-blown manes --

A hundred leagues to leeward,

Ere yet the deep is stirred,

The groaning rollers carry

The coming of the herd!

Does Your Horse Have Ulcers?

Many of you have experienced having your horse suffer from health problems. One of the most common problems is ulcers. I remember three years ago, my 5-year old Chase had ulcers for about 4 weeks and no one ever knew about it. Many of us in the family did not realize that a big percentage of horses can have digestive problems. I was not so sure that time that problems in his GI system could manifest in his behaviors. He was cranky at that time and developed bad habits such as chewing off the fence.

Three years ago, I got a call from the owner of the barn where Chase boarded. He said that Chase had not touched his feed a night before and that appears to be unusual for my horse. Normally, Chase is like a vacuum cleaner – he eats up all his feed and nothing will be left. That’s my Chase – always a lover of food. I visited the barn and Chase looked fine; the vet was not around that time and since I saw that Chase was looking alright, I just shrugged it off. The next day, I saw my horse doing alright – eating normally, drinking and defecating normally. But the next few days, something was just really off. Chase had been seen to be crankier, less jolly, and eating less. Now that’s something new, I thought.

Your horse can't speak if he's in pain. It's up to you to identify
the signs that tell he's not doing fine.

This alarmed me and prompted me to call on my vet and he suspected that my Chase had ulcers. I didn’t know back then that ulcers in horses are not caused by bacteria or that “backyard” horses like Chase can also be prone to these problems as with many performance horses. So the vet told me that treatment is with the use of equine omeprazole, but obviously, this course of therapy will not be cheap. So I had to consult a friend of mine back in Oklahoma, and she said there are cheaper alternatives. One is by the name of AbPrazole, a granule formulation of the said medication. I gave it a try and after several days of therapy, I find my Chase back in his great shape.

When it comes to digestive problems, your horse is not likely to complain and whine constantly just to express pain. You need to be more observant on the different signs of gastric problems. Do not ignore any changes in appetite or behaviour. Contact your veterinarian and have your horse checked as soon as possible.

Horse, Horses . . Everything You Need!

This blog is dedicated to anything about horses. I would like to share information about different breeds of horses, various tips for horse care, horse health problems and everything about horses! For horse lovers out there, feel free to browse my blog for horse information! Happy reading! :)