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Discussion on Is one worming enough?
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Member:
Shylow
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Posted on Saturday, Dec 27, 2003 - 10:43 pm:
My brother has control of my parents' Morgan mares and stallion. They usually breed every year. They have a mare I helped raise that I am very concerned about. She is about 20 years old and looks horrible. She has lost fat and muscle on her back so that her withers, backbone and the tops of her ribs show. My brother sees nothing wrong with the way she looks because she has a large belly. She has just had a foal weanned off her. From what my brother has told me, the horses were wormed about a month ago and he was finding worms that were 1 to 1 1/2 inches long in their stools. I have two questions about this. One, If the worms were that long should these horses be wormed again to insure that all the worms are gone? Two, I have always been told that Morgans develop slower and live longer than some of the other "hotter" breeds (The man we got our horses from had 30 year old mares that were still breeding) so at 20 should she look like that? My brother uses her age as an excuse for her appearance, and I feel he is just waiting for her to die.
Thanks for your help.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, Dec 28, 2003 - 9:05 am:
Hello Janet,
It certainly sounds like these horses need a better deworming program but another single deworming is not the long term answer, see Care for Horses » Deworming and Parasite Control » Overview of Deworming for more on this.
Concerning the poor doing mare we really don't know from here what her troubles might be, other than too few calories and poor deworming, and suggest a good physical exam by a veterinarian so all the easily addressed issues can be covered, for more on this see Care for Horses » Routine Care & Procedures » Geriatric Horse: Problems and Care.
DrO
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