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Discussion on Deworming older horses
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Member:
digger89
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Posted on Wednesday, Aug 24, 2016 - 8:58 am:
My quarter horse gelding (Digger) is now 27. He and our other 2 horses always had negative fecals and only received fall worming for tapes. We added a new horse 3 years ago who was wormed the day we brought him home. From then on one horse was still negative, the new horse and my mare always had egg counts below 100, and Digger's count was 100-300. We dewormed per the vet's recommendations. 10 months ago the new horse and the mare left but Digger is still having egg counts of 50-150. We clean the manure from the fields every 1-2 days, and several times each day in the stalls. Digger and his pasturemate are retired, never leave the farm, and no other horses come in contact with them. Digger has actually always been meticulous about not grazing near manure piles. Is his age a factor in continuing to shed eggs? He is pretty healthy other than arthritis and a tendency to having free water when passing manure.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 25, 2016 - 9:21 am:
Hello Sarah,
First let me commend you on your parasite management. Yes age is a factor as immunity declines with age but perhaps more important is the "parasite permissive" class of horses. See the article associated with this discussion area and read the subtopic under "Special Considerations" labelled "Parasite Permissive Horses".
DrO
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