Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Deworming Schedule

I just read one of those Q&A type columns over at the Horse.com. Someone asked if under their circumstances (one horse...little travel) they should cut back on their horse deworming schedule (every two months). Apparently the horse's fecal count came out clean so their vet recommended cutting back.

My thought was "that 0 fecal count is BECAUSE you worm regularly". But the vet writing the column disagreed with me. He said they could cut back to twice a year or LESS.

I guess I am on the wrong side of this fence. Of course the situation of owning only one horse won't even register in my mind. The last time we only had one horse on the farm I was like 7 years old. One horse had died from old age. My pony was old, but still going strong. My next cowpony was still a year or two in the future.

But ever since that time we have had somewhere between 2 and 20 horses wandering around, eating, pooping, tearing up fences, and only occasionally being truly useful. I don't ride as often as I used to, but I will have at least a field full of the pasture rats when I die for sure.

Now I am not advocating using Equimax or Zimecterin Gold every month or two mind you. It just seems to me, that with ivermectin paste being so cheap that it is safer to keep a horse "cleaned out" than risk a worm infection.

Am I behind the times?

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