2 things

[krissy3]

First thing.... THIS WINTER SEASON IS KILLING ME !!!!! when will i have warm air and green grass? If I wake up to a -15 C morning one more time I will retreat to a cave and never come out again.

Now to change the subject..our vets here tell us not to de worm in the winter . Its freezing here and worms dont live in ice, and worm paste is 65 CHF per tube.

So December was my last worming date, despite the cold days , every once in a while the sun comes out and melts everything, and its warm, even hot in the sun for a few hours. Now I think i need to worm, because worms do live on sunny days , and my horses are looking a bit round in the tummy. Here is the problem... I really worry about the horses colicing at this time of year when birds sing "its spring", the day light is long, the horses are shedding , but it still drops down to way below freezing at night and every 3rd day it snows, so we have sun one day , snow the next.. I see that they are not drinking as much water as i would like on the cold days, and tons of water on the warm days. Should I wait until the weather balances out a bit more before i deworm them. Or should I take the chance and worm them while the weather is so crazy? I think next year despite what the vet says I will not stop the worming schedual, for this very reason.At the moment the hotel is open and full of needy guests , so i cant even worm them and stay with them the whole day to make sure they dont colic.

My life is crazy miserable until the end of the month, can it wait until then? maybe by then the weather will decide if its spring or winter.

 

[Mominis]

Well, that's a new one on me. I've never heard of not worming through the winter. I would ask the vet to do a fecal egg count and see what level of an infestation (if any) you are dealing with and then set up a program with the vet accordingly so reduce the risk of a colic.

 

[Pepipony]

Thats one of those old wives tales that makes me NUTS. Worms themselves may not survive outside during the winter, but that doesnt stop whatever may be living inside the gut.

 

[Relic]

l've wormed some winters at -35C no problem we can swing from that to -5C in a matter of a few days. l would think they'd just have a bigger worm load to get rid of come spring if they didn't get done all winter...

 

[Marnie]

I do believe you need another vet opinion. This one is just not good advice. Here we deworm after the first hard frost and then again early spring, I do again just after they foal, if the are pregnant and again once more mid summer. Worms inside are having a ball in there, get them out and let them freeze.

 

[Matt73]

I worm every 8 weeks, all year-round on a rotating schedule.