Due to circumstances detailed below, my options are:
- Deworm 1 horse now and deworm 1 pony in a few weeks
- Wait and deworm both in a few weeks
Which would you choose?
I have two equines at my home farm. A horse and a pony. The pony is a recent acquisition with a totally unknown history.
Typically I deworm 2X per year. Quest Plus in April and Equimaxx in October. I was a bad horse owner and hadn’t done my horse’s October dewormer yet when pony showed up. I thought NBD, I’ll get a dewormer for pony too and do them both at same time.
Wrong. Pony isn’t having anything to do with anything that resembles me putting anything in his mouth. Or touching his mouth even. I’ve tried some basic “tricks”; slowly starting with just touching over top of nose and under chin, luring with cookies, syringe w applesauce, using a carrot as a syringe. I’m getting nowhere fast with this. At this point, I’m presuming that either 1) pony has serious trauma re being dewormed or 2) pony has a tooth / mouth issue that needs medical treatment.
Vet is scheduled for the 4th of December. She’ll do his vaccinations and his teeth and presumably we can squirt the dewormer down his throat while he’s sedated or something.
Anyways. Should I wait until I can get pony dewormed to deworm the horse? Or go ahead and deworm horse now?