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Discussion on Deworming program for horses not on pasture
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Member:
Brnrat
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Posted on Wednesday, Sep 22, 2004 - 12:49 pm:
My horses are stabled without access to pasture. There are approximately 75 horses in my boarding barn where turnout is permitted in sand arenas. This does allow some exposure to other horses' manure and they also tend to eat their neighbors' leftover hay out of the manure cart when their stalls are being cleaned. They are fed hay in their stall on the ground. What is an appropriate deworming schedule for such exposure? They have been on a 4x per year deworming with ivermectin only by the local vet. Is this adequate or should they be wormed for tapes at least 1x per year as well? Thank you.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Sep 23, 2004 - 6:46 am:
Hello Kristie,
Horse tape worms require the orbadid pasture mite as a intermediate host. I am uncertain there are any such intermediates that might survive on the ground in your situation. However they are reported in hays, but the hay fields would have to have horses on it. All things considered tapes seem very unlikely but a once every few years use of praziquantel is cheap and safe insurance. For more on tape worms see, Equine Diseases » Colic and GI Diseases » Parasites and Worms » Tapeworms, Cestode spp.
How often is the manure cleaned out of the paddocks is critical as the eggs passed are not immediately infective, for more on this see Equine Diseases » Colic and GI Diseases » Parasites and Worms » An Overview of Intestinal Parasites.
As outlined in the overview article it is easy to find out if other parasites are being adequately attended to: have a fecal float test run on your horses just prior to the next deworming. Let us know the results and we will be glad to comment.
DrO
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