I had the vet out last month for fall shots & to check the new kid for teeth, chiro, etc so I ran a fecal on both boys. They both got equiimax based on the fecals. I would’ve liked to wait because of botflies but the new kid had strongyles. He’s put weight on since that so I’ll probably just run fecals again before spring worming.
The pyranha in the yellow bottle I’m finding is working the best to repel the botflies. Otherwise I’m removing eggs on the warmer days we have.
I like the pyranha too. That and endure seem to work best recently. (Best being relative) I’ve sprayed mine twice a day most days all season. It’s possible that’s been keeping some of the bot flies at bay. I dunno if fly predators help with bot flies? I use those too.
I’m curious to see the before and after FEC results. My new senior horse is the one taking abx for scratches and he came in skinny along with a boatload of other issues. Like, think sensitive TB, hard keeper and needs maintenance but been left to rot in a field for some years. I’m particularly interested in his FEC results in the event he needs something extra.
The first fecal he had he was branded as a shedder, bigtime. JB straightened me out about Quest Plus and Equimax and which one to do in the spring. I’ll let her tell you. 
I give him ivermectin mid-summer. We checked and it killed everything. We moved to a new barn a year ago. He had a fecal in July when he was staying overnight after a lameness evaluation. It came back normal.
I figured out if I use apple flavored products he doesn’t spit it all out. A Durvet rep told me several years ago at Equine Affaire that their regular product Ivermectin is apple flavored. Duramectin doesn’t have as much apple flavoring. They make Equimax and it smelled like an apple when he got it last month. I thought he swallowed all of it because I was getting so good at deworming after 20 years.
I thought about this thread over the weekend. Our falls have been trending warmer with extended hard freezes coming later and later. Instead of waiting for a solid week of hard freeze, I usually assume it’s okay after several frosts.
We had a few nights in a row of frost and I thought about doing my fall dewormer, but decided to wait until I was off work for Thanksgiving so I would have time to do FECs first.
Well, we had some warmer temps after the few nights of frosts and what did I find over the weekend? A whole new bunch of bot eggs on each of my horses. 
Glad I held off. I hadn’t seen any in weeks so I had just assumed we were done for the season. Nope.
I’m holding off too. Mostly because I haven’t gotten around to taking samples up to the vet. Work has been crazy is my excuse. 
Still no bot fly eggs on horses or sub freezing temps here. No rain either, but that’s a separate issue. It’s nice riding weather though so can’t complain too much.
So interesting because you and I aren’t that far away from each other and I haven’t seen a single bot egg this year!
We’ve had a few frosty mornings but it was 25 last night so I’m going to do my Equimax today. I have a new horse arriving in about a month , but I don’t want to wait that long to deworm the two at home now.
I noticed that dewormer prices at TSC seem higher than usual. I think I normally get QP and Equimax for $12-13/tube and they are currently $16-$18 at TSC. Other online stores still seem to have them for less though. I tend to buy my next round of dewormer whenever I need a few more items to get free shipping from Valley Vet, Santa Cruz, etc.
I had some back in September at our old farm, then nothing for weeks. New farm is in an “equestrian subdivision” of sorts- no HOA or anything but all the properties are 5-10 acres and have barn, pasture, etc. But only about half of them have horses these days. Still, that’s a lot of horse properties in a small area. I think bots are going to be unavoidable with so many farms in the same space.
If it’s been 6-7 months since the Spring boticide, I wouldn’t bother waiting. Their lifecycle isn’t so short that in a few months you’ll have a major internal issue…
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