Hi Dr. Getty,
I noticed in a few of your questions, you have recommended daily worming with horses, and a paste twice a year.
Why do you recommend this, and what kind of wormer would I use if I started daily worming? And what kind of paste do you recommend for the other times?
I currently alternate between the regular worming paste and an ivermectin paste every 2 to 3 months. I also give them a paste for bots after the first frost in the late fall.
Around here we have Quest and Strongid types of wormers.
By the way, I wrote to you before regarding my gelding with suspected founder. I have since had 2 vets and 2 other farriers check him out and all have said there is no sign of founder in his feet. So perhaps the one farrier was wrong? I also told this to his previous owner, and she agreed that she had never had him checked for founder, she just assumed it had happened because of his behaviour at the time, but she agreed it could have been something as simple as a bruised sole, but she wasn't taking any chances and only put him on her lush pasture a bit at a time cause he seemed tender in his front feet. So perhaps good news with all that!
Thanks in advance for info on the wormer!
Tamara

Where are you from? Ontario, Canada

How did you locate this forum? Web search

Hi Tamara,

I like the usage of a daily wormer since it provides better protection. All horses have worms. Paste wormers work well, too, but they remove the majority of worm populations for a few days. But, then more worms reproduce, so that by the time you worm again in 2 months, the population is up again. A daily wormer keeps the population low all of the time.

It is still necessary, however, to paste worm twice each year. I recommend using a combination invermectin/prazaquantel wormer in the spring to take care of tapeworms. And, in the late fall, I use ivermectin. This takes care of bots.

Quest is moxidectin, which also takes care of encysted larvae, which is important. But, moxidectin is very harsh, in my opinion. I much prefer using a five day Panacur PowerPac (fenbendazole) each year to get rid of encysted larvae.

You can use a paste wormer, like you mentioned, however I would recommend you only use Quest once each year, not rotated with others every few months.

That's great news about your gelding! Founder is something you would never want to deal with, so it was likely something else, since there is no apparent sign that it occured.

Thanks for writing!

Happy Holidays!

Dr. Getty