Needing Advice on Deworming Foal

[sparklingjewelacres]

So I have read through many of the topics here on this forum about de-worming foals and adult horses and have gotten a fairly good idea as to what I am supposed to be doing.

I decided to wait until our filly was 2 months old before we de-wormed her. she is almost that age.

I have been told and have also read to start with the Safeguard for the first de-worming in the foals.

Q. How many have used the Safeguard pellets vs the paste? It may be easier at this stage since this little filly is eating her feed well now. It is just hard to brak down to the right amount.

Q. I have also read and have been told to do a 5 day in a row Safeguard treatment for the first de-worming and then to follow up a month later with perhaps other de-wormers such as Ivermectin.

I do not like using pellet de-wormers as it is hard to give the right amount but for the foals first treatment was thinking it might actually be easier to administer to her in this way. By the time she is 4 months old, I will be able to have a halter on her and perhaps get tube de-wormer down easier.

 

[sparklingjewelacres]

I also would like to add this: I know that with our goats.. their systems are quite different than a horse and they have some species specific parasites that are different but I have been quite successful in maintaining a good healthy goat herd free from parasite overloads. I do have to do a Ivermectin/prazinquantel de-wormer schedule on all of them 3 times at least a year and each time..that being 10 days apart in sets of 3. Goats it seems are in a greater need of de-wormers than horses are as they are meant to be high browsersand not low pasture grazers.

I hope to not over dose these horses from my experience with the goats. So...I am wondering how many actually do give their adult horses a 2nd treatment after 10 days with their de-wormers... or how many actually give the safeguard for 5 days straight as a (one time dewormer) for foals.

 

[AnnaC]

We always worm our babies with a 'gentle' wormer - Safeguard is fine - once a month for the first six months (starting when they are approx 6 weeks old) as babies normally only suffer from round worms. We usually put them on to an Ivermectin wormer around Christmas time and from then on they join in with the rest of the herd's regular worming programme. Have never done a 5 day treatment on anything until they are well into their yearling year at the earliest and then only if I think it necessary. With a sensible worming programme and pastures kept as clean as possible then it is thought that we need to be careful about possibly overworming our horses un-necessarily.

I think you might find that she will refuse to eat her food if wormer pellets are included - they dont like the taste! Safeguard has a good safely margin, so where you have marker notches showing at 100kg (?) intervals, I would aim to give her half a 'notch' for the moment. It is easy to give the paste - just offer your little girl something to nibble on (in spite of their little teeth we usually offer our finger at this age!) and quickly slip the wormer syringe into the corner of her mouth as she 'nibbles'. Done, easy and no need to grab baby!!

 

[targetsmom]

We worm our foals once a month, starting at around one month if we remember. All our mature minis are on daily wormer but we still worm the foals, using Safeguard for the first few times like Anna does. To help restrain a foal while you give him the wormer, you can hold him between your legs, but we like to use his mother's halter, put on upside down so it serves as a harness. Unbuckle the halter and hold the strap down, slip the noseband over the foals nose, and twist it around so that the strap will go around his belly.. Buckle the halter around the foals belly with the buckle underneath and the halter ring should be right over his withers for easy attachment of a lead.

 

[Never2Mini]

Helpful thread, I was wondering when to start worming and with what.

 

[sparklingjewelacres]

Oh.. This has been very helpful. Thank you so much. I have so much to learn about how to care for this little foal. She is almost too chubby it seems but in comparison to the large horse breeds that seem to have typical lanky skinny foals- she is just fluffy haired and rounded like her mother. Her mother is not a refined mini perhaps because she comes from the Rowdy line of breeding.<br /><br />I am thinking the Safeguard paste is what we will do. She is quite fine with us looking at her teeth and gums so I think we can easily get it into her mouth.. hopefully.<br /><br />So this answers a lot for me. I know people do the 5 day treatment.. just wondered how many here did that. I would rather not upset her system by over worming... but also want to be sure to get the cycles of the worms.<br /><br />

 

[targetsmom]

One other thing - we squeeze the wormer out into a syringe and then calibrate it so we know how much to give in cc's. Then we put that small amount into a syringe to dose the foal so there is no chance of the Safeguard plunger slipping. I don't remember how much we give to foals but I have it written down and can check each year.

 

[bevann]

I would not suggest the 5 day Panacur routine for a foal.that is usually done for a mature horse .Once a month worming with Safeguard should take care of the foal nicely.when I had foals we always put a halter on baby at about age 2 weeks and started lead breaking then.At that age baby wants to follow mom so we had 1 handler with baby and 1 walking mom in large circles.got baby farther away from mom as days progressed and finally mom standing with baby going around in circles. Less stress and lessons were very short. Short baby-short attention span.Babies are so much fun

 

[sparklingjewelacres]

It is good to know about the 5 day treatment so I will do once a month for now. I know with goats.. we have to break the cycle and have to de-worm every 10 days for 3 times. Then again in 6 months. Horses are quite hardy in comparison to goats for worm load. They are always nibbling on dirt and crop grass low whereas the goat will crop the grass blade at 3 inches high and is a browser so I am learning about the horses system and how to de-worm them. I will take a sample in to vet also but will after the first treatment to see how things are.

I am much happier waiting to halter the baby at 4 months. She is so trusting of us and lets me handle her all over.. checking her hooves and teeth an gums. I think by the time she is 4 months old she will be more ready for the halter.. but I know people do this sooner with good results. I have been slipping it on and off of her to get her used to it.

 

[sparklingjewelacres]

and Mary.. its a good reminder to put de-wormer in another syringe as the plungers on these tubes often slip and can be hard to deliver the proper amount. It will take me some work to figure out the amount to give. We do have the other syringes to put it into that will work well. Thanks.

 

[targetsmom]

We put halters on our babies starting at about 2 weeks, but ONLY SUPERVISED and no leads at first. Just to get them used to putting it on and wearing it. Sounds like you are doing that already. At some point we lead them along with Mom so they are well halter broke by the time they are weaned. We had the 4-Hers leading the 2012 foals over trail obstacles by weaning time! If you make a game of it, and keep sessions very short, they learn fast.

The halter we use for restraint is much larger - usually the dam's halter - and is only used in harness fashion. We don't lead that way but can hold the lead to keep them quiet for the farrier, for example, without strain on the neck.

 

[Lindi-loo]

I just thought id say do double check the ring on the syringe is succure..I had a real scare a few months back when I wormed my little guy the ring slipped back and he had enough to dose a 600kg pony

a very worrying time seeing him looking so out of sorts and expensive mistake on my part with the vets fees..thankfully he had no lasting effects and was fine after spending 3 days at the hospital...now I squeeze the correct dose onto a piece of bread with marmite so they don't seem to taste the paste..I don't want to go through that again for sure

 

[bevann]

If you can still pick up your foal get an old bathroom scale,step on to get your accurate weight, then step on holding foal, subtract the 2 the difference is your foals' weight. easy if you have someone strong enough and foal is cooperative.