Introduction
This involves many maintenance to ensure they stay healthy and the critical aspects of horse care is worming. Worms will lead to significant health problems in horses including loss of condition, poor coat quality and gastrointestinal upset. Deworming regularly prevents these problems and keeps your horse healthy. With so many worming pastes on the market, choosing the right horse worming paste can be a bit of a minefield. It is important for understanding how to choose the product for the horse in order to ensure the greatest success in controlling worms and promoting overall health.
Understanding Horse Worms
Then there are several different kinds of worms that can infect and affect the health of your horse, such as roundworms, tapeworms and strongyles. Each kind of worm behaves differently in a horse, so the correct worming paste should target the actual parasites in your horse. That’s because some worming pastes are effective against several kinds of worms, while others are targeted smaller infestations. Taxing your veterinarian is a good place to start to find out what your horse is most at risk for, because they will be able to recommend the best kind of worming treatment for your horse. Keep reading to learn about the common types of worms, so you can use the proper paste for good prevention.
What to look for on the label
It is best to consider the active ingredients when selecting a horse worming paste. Therefore the chemicals in each wormer are different as they work to kill specific worm types. Some of the generic ingredients that you will find are ivermectin, fenbendazole, moxidectin, and praziquantel. Each of these ingredients will kill different worms, therefore knowing what your horse needs is important. By reading the label carefully and speaking with a veterinarian, you will be able to select a worming paste with the proper active ingredients for your horse.
Rotating Worming Treatments
If you keep using the same worming paste, it can become resistant and won’t work in the future. The aim now is to rotate worming treatments during the year to avoid this problem. Regular worming allows for an even distribution of the treatments across all species of worms and decreases the risk of resistance building up. Despite this, many horse owners still adhere to a rotational worming program, changing active ingredients to avoid resistance. It’s important to hold records of previous wormings to allow for the best choice of paste to be made that will follow during the next cycle.
Age and Condition of your Horse
The worming paste you use can significantly depend on the age and health condition of your horse. Worming for foals, adult horses, and senior horses differ. Foals are susceptible to different types of worms so will require treatment more frequently. Older horses have a weaker immune system, so they might need special care as well. Note also that pregnant mares need worming treatments that are safe for the mare & foal. Knowing the age and health status of your horse helps you choose the most suitable worming paste in your horse’s specific situation.
Ease of Administration
It is very important to select a paste that is easy to administer as some horses are hard to worm. Flavored formulations of some worming pastes are available for more palatability. Others have user-friendly syringes that enable precise dosing. If your horse won’t take paste wormers, it is possible that granules or liquid wormers could be better alternatives.
Regular horse worming paste is a vital part of your horse’s health care routine, so choosing the right paste is key to effective protection. Rotating treatments, taking the horse’s age and condition into consideration and checking for safety are all important steps in making the right choice. By developing a well-tailored worming plan, and using only high quality products, you will ensure that your horse remains healthy, happy, and parasite–free.
