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There was some discussion pro and con recently on ridecamp about what I am
about to suggest, and there are some people out there who will disagree
with what I am about to tell you, at least on a long term basis. My best
suggestion is to worm him with a broad spectrum paste wormer, ivermectin is
my wormer of choic, and the next day put him on a daily pelleted wormer.
The brand name of the original product is Strongid C, by Pfizer, about $55
per pail, cost to feed about 50 cents per day. Since about last year Pfizer
released the formula to be reproduced by other manufaturers, so the same
formula can be obtained other different names. Here in Arizona, Eagle
Milling (aka Arizona Feeds) produces what they call Strongicid, same stuff
much lower price, about 35 cents per day to feed.
In Equus magazine in I believe the January issue, one reader wrote in to
the ask the vet column and said she had a horse boarded at her place that
was overweight, the owners did not ride, she could not excercise, what
should she do, and by the way, the mare was on a daily wormer. The vet told
her that one thing she could do was to take the horse off the daily wormer,
because it could increase feed efficiency by as much as 40%. Think about
that a minute. Looked at another way, it means that as much as 40% of your
feed dollar is going to feed worms. More importantly than the economics in
your situation is that as much as 40% of the precious feed you put in front
of this desperately hungry horse will do him no good, but will instead feed
worms.
The advantages that I have found from using daily wormer is multiple. One
way to look at it is that you can decrease the amount you have to feed a
horse
by as much as 40% and still have that horse getting enough to eat. When
you have to move hay around to stock up for winter feed, even cutting
the amount by 25% is alot fewer pounds of hay to move. Another way to
look at it is from just a hard dollars and cents point of view. As I noted
above, from an
economic point of view it means that up to 40 cents of every dollar
that the owner spends on feed is going to feed worms. On daily wormer,
a horse that can be fed even 25% less than what you would otherwise
have to feed that animal to maintain it is going to result in a
significant savings in maintenance cost. The wormer costs about 35
cents a day to feed, but if it even costs $2 per day to feed that
horse, a conservative estimate of only $60 per month, the savings in
feed cost alone amounts to at least 50 cents a day.
Another reason I use the daily wormer is because of the profound impact on
my foals. We have 2 on the ground now and two yet to come. Most foals get a
snotty nose and get depressed in their
attitude and growth at about 4 months of age. The conventional wisdom
was that this was the point at which the immunities obtained pre birth
from the mare wore off, so the foals started catching viruses. After
the daily wormer came on the market it was discovered that the snotty
nose and depression of attitude and growth has quite another cause:
worms. Four months is how long it takes for the foal to become infested
after birth, and for the worm eggs to hatch and the adolescent worms to
begin migrating through the foal's circulatory system and especially
the lungs. Hench the snotty nose. My foals are on daily wormer from the
time they will start eating even a few grains of feed, usually at two
or three days old. They never get that snotty nose or the depression of
attitude and growth.
One of the greatest fears of horse owners is colic. As you surely know,
colic can lead to
laminitis, a complex biological screw-up invloving a cascading series
of events that results in rotation of the coffin bone in the hoof and
permanent lameness. Studies done at major veterinay teaching hospitals
like U.W. Madison show that 85% of all colic is caused by worms. There
will be a precipitating factor, the ones that all horse owners know
about, like changing feeds, or putting a horse out in the spring on
green pasture after after a winter of hay, or exercising the horse and
not cooling it out, or letting it drink alot of water after exercise,
etc. However, if you have two horses, one of which is worm free and the
other of which has a worm load, both exposed to the same precipitating
factor, the one that has the worm load will have an 85% higher chance
of colic than the one that does not have a worm load. You only have to
save one $400 vet bill treating colic to know that it is worth keeping
your horses worm free.
Horses that are worm free will not get sick as much as other horses,
because their immune system is not constantly depressed from fighting the
pariasitic infestation, resulting in much lower vet bills. I have not had
one vet call
for illness in all the horses I own since I started all my horses on
daily wormer 5 years ago. They will look and act healthier, feel better
and therefore also perform better. What owners often do not understand
is that horses in the wild do not carry heavy worm loads, and are
therefore almost never suseptible to colic, because they do not stay in
one place long enough to be infested by worms. Domestic horses, by
contrast, are kept in confined areas where they are constantly being
reinfested by worms from their own manure, unless they are kept worm
free all the time.
Another subtle benefit of keeping a horse worm free is that they will live
longer and be reproductively sound longer. My Mountain horses are long
lived
anyway. My senior stalion Casey is 14, his sire Sam is 21, and his sire
Tobe
died at the age of 36. Sam is still siring foals, and Tobe sired foals
in the year he died. I read of one mare that some people bought when
she was 15, and then got 7 foals from her. If they bred her every year,
that means her last foal was born when she was at least 22. The
migration of the adolescent worms through the horse's circulatory
system damages the blood vessels, lungs and heart, shortening the
horse's life. So, a horse that is kept worm free all of its life will
live even longer than these horses' normal long life.
I learned all of the above from the vets at the University of Wisconsin
Veterinary School the hard way. I bought a gorgeous black 4 year old mare
in Kentucky in the summer of 1992. I had her wormed with ivermectin 30 days
before she was to be shipped to Wisconsin where I lived at the time. When
she came up, I wormed her with Panacure, another broad spectrum wormer. 30
days later she coliced, for no apparent reason, a torsion of the small
intestine. The local vet did all he could and said she was probably going
to need surger, we loaded her up and made a midnight run to the vet
hospital 60 miles away. The ride itself cause the torsion to release, as
sometimes happens, so she did not need surgery. However, they pulled a
fecal count on her and told me the worm load was off the scale. Off the
scale! I said how can that be, I just wormed her 60 days ago and again 30
days ago, and that's when they gave me a crash course in worms and the
effect on the health of a horse. They recommended I put at least one pail
of wormer through her to clean her out. Grumble, grumble, this stuff is
expensive, grumble, grumble, every other month paste worming has worked for
me for years, grumble, grumble, grumble, oh alright if you say so, I'll try
it. 30 days later, every horse on my place went on it after I saw the
difference in attitude, performance and overall health of that one horse.
And then I found the difference it made in my breeding program. My
stallion's settling rate went up (producing more sperm I suppose instead of
fighting worms) my foals are born bigger and healthier, and grown faster on
less feed to both them and the dam.
The reservations expressed in this forum were about the possible long term
effects of feeding a poison to a horse. I have had no problems, but I am
not using my horses at the extreme of their performance capabilities as are
endurance riders. I just know it works well for me. And so I will pass on
the same advice the U.W. Vets gave me 5 years ago, put at least one pail of
the daily wormer through that horse, and I think you will find it will make
a profound difference in his ability to get healthy for you quick.
Good luck with your project.
Annette and 12 Mountain Horses with two on the way!
----------
> From: ETRAIL@aol.com
> To: ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject: Nutrition for abused horse
> Date: Sunday, April 13, 1997 8:00 AM
>
> Hi Everybody,
> Just acquired a seriously neglected coming 5 year old Arabian gelding
who
> is approximately 200 pounds underweight. He's 14.3 and weighs 690 now.
The
> purpose of his purchase is to compete this ride season in some slow
limited
> distance rides with my boyfriend, who is a heavyweight rider (6', 185
lbs.),
> but ONLY if the horse becomes physically ready this year.
> He's bony and lacks muscle, but is a wonderful little guy.
> For everybody's information on making nutritional suggestions, he was
> raised at altitude in the Colorado mountains. My place is at 9400 feet
and
> it's still snowy and very cold (dipping to zero at night still), so I
think
> the altitude and weather need to be a consideration in getting him
healthy
> again.
> We had a pre-purchase exam done on Friday and the vet says he'll be
amazing
> when get gets some weight and muscle put on him.
> My question is, that while we all have ideas on how to bring some bloom
> back on an underweight horse, this little gelding needs serious help and
> needs to come back as quickly as possible.
> We'll be worming him today, he's already been on good quality
free-choice
> grass hay, approximately 4 lbs. of sweet mix with Accel added. (We'll be
> giving him a good dose of corn oil on his grain as well.) He has access
to a
> mineral block and warm drinking water.
> My mares are so chunky that I've never had to worry about this kind of
> stuff before, so any suggestions you all have would be so helpful.
> Thanks in advance...hope all the rest of you are have a great time
riding.
> It's too damn cold here!
> Laura MacCallum
>
>
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