De-worming Your Horse


Most horse owners have a regular de-worming program for
their horses. De-worming your horse is vital to your horses
overall health and without a regular program in place
your horse will become a host for parasites. If your horse is
not de-wormed it can cause diarrhea, rapid and/or severe
weight loss, as well as colic, which can be life threatening.

Your horse should be on a regular de-worming routine. Most
people worm their horses for parasites such as roundworms,
pinworms, threadworms, stomach worms, lung worms, and roundworms.
Key treatments for specific parasites can be every 6 months for the
control of bots, tapeworms and the notorious red worm.

Rotation refers to rotating the class of drug you use to
de-worm your horse or horses. The most popular de wormers
fall into three categories:

         (1)avermectins (ivermectin and moxidectin)

   (2) benzimazoles (Panacur, Anthelcide)

(3) pyrantels (Strongid) and the like.

Personally I use all three of these categories in my rotation
program. In my personal opinion Ivermectin is the best of all
three categories. It is inexpensive and highly effective.
It kills all types of parasites and it is not harmful to your
horse or other animals.


There are literally dozens of types of worms that can infest
your horse, some worms being more prevalent in different
regions of the country and some are more seasonal. Nevertheless
you will need to de-worm your horse to get rid of the parasites
and keep your horse healthy and happy.

Use of a broad spectrum de-wormer will ensure that all the
worms residing in your horse are eradicated. As a rule of
thumb you should de worm your horse every 6-8 weeks. De-wormers
come in pellet form, granules, pastes, and liquids, which will give you a
variety of choices for the most persnickety horse. Don't forget to
rotate to a different class of de-wormer every other
month or so to get the best coverage for your horse.