Hi,
need advice on best wormer for strongyles, 400 count for 17 yr old warmblood cross. 21 yr old OTTH came back clean. Haven’t wormed in a yr.
read some horses have issues with quest so looking for advice.
thanks
You might ask your vet for a recommendation about what to use.
If you haven’t wormed them in a year, you probably want to choose a product that will target tapeworms as well as stongyles, especially since tapeworms often won’t show up on a routine fecal. That would mean either QuestPlus or one of the ivermectin-praziquantel combinations like Equimax.
Quest or QuestPlus has sometimes been problematic for underweight horses, and for some ponies and foals/yearlings. The big advantage of using Quest or QuestPlus is that it will also target encysted strongyles, which ivermectin will not.
If you’re concerned about using it, though, ask your vet.
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Assuming there are no health issues with your horse, and he’s not a mini, 400 is not at all high enough to be afraid of moxidectin. Personally I’d go with Quest Plus.
At only 400 after a year, he doesn’t have a HUGE struggle controlling parasites, but can’t do it all on his own.
QP will get all those strongyles, all the tapeworms, all the bots, and almost all the encysted strongyles he likely has.
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“Haven’t wormed in a year” - you need to, even with clean FECs. You’re not going to see bots or tapeworms on FECs, and most of the US needs to be dewormed twice a year for those.
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thanks guys…i know i still have to hit for tapeworms and pinworms and bots (knew those don’t show up in fecals). i was pleasantly surprised the count wasn’t higher; he’s the fatter of the two (the OTTH isn’t missing any meals either). i’ll hit bots after first freeze (or as close to it in va).
My vet said that some horses are carriers and others are not. He does not know the reason why. I do fecals yearly and deworm for tapes once a year. My old quarter horse has always had a 0 worm count.
The reason is well-known - immune system.
Nearly every horse develops immunity against ascarids by the time they are young adults - 3-4.
Beyond that, 80-90% of horses are consistently low-shedders for most of the other nasties, like strongyles, meaning their immune system is genetically and nutritionally healthy enough to do its job well, for the parasites it can handle.
That list of parasites doesn’t include bots or tapeworms, which is why even the most immune-full horse will still be challenged by those, and needs to have those taken care of for him.
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I had a fecal done on my 23 y.o. gelding in April, having wormed him in January with ivermectin. His fecal count was stratospheric. Vet told me to give him Equimax, not Quest Plus because of his age. I didn’t ask why. He also had me put him on Strongid CX10 daily wormer. Vet says there is a shedder in the herd he is with. I need to find out if I should be giving him Equimax this fall, and whether and when I can do another fecal to see if he can come off the daily wormer.
I don’t consider 23 to be too old for Quest. I consider the overall health of the horse first.
@walktrot I think it was a mistake to start on the daily dewormer (DW). A 1-time high count doesn’t warrant that. It’s not at all uncommon for a horse to have a sudden high count - for known or even unknown reasons - and then be just fine, back to his normal low or moderate shedder status.
It doesn’t matter if there a med/high shedder with him. What matters is his own ability to handle his particular situation.
You will need to have him off the DW for a minimum of 4 weeks before you can do a FEC to determine his status, not the other way around. He needs at least 4 weeks to either handle, or not handle, the environmental situation.
Even if he were to stay on the DW (which really should be for RARE cases of horses who cannot be managed even with 4x/year deworming) he would still have to have ivermectin or moxidectin at least once a year, one of which needs to be combined with praziquantel (so Equimax or Quest Plus) in order to get bots and tapeworms, which no DW will kill.
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JB, thanks for the info! I’ve never had a fecal done before, and his count was something like 1450. I’ve given him Equimax/Quest Plus at least once a year for a long time. I was quite shocked with that fecal, because I had stopped the bimonthly worming, but had done him in January. I couldn’t imagine why his count was so high, and I don’t know if this is a one-time thing. I was drifting in the direction you are talking about, so I think I’ll email the vet and let him know that I plan to take him off the Strongid and give him Quest Plus if the feed store has it. I probably won’t have a fecal done until shots in the spring because the vet doesn’t need to be at our barn that often.
My vet has been at it for almost 50 years, and definitely keeps up with what is current. He’s also into alternative therapies, so we get chiro also from time to time. We’ve had him since I bought my horse in 2001. He got us through a bout of Lyme disease about 10 years ago. Horse is the picture of good health and the BO says he has another 10 years in him. I still ride 6 days a week, and I hope we both keep cruising along. We are about 3 1/2 years from our Century ride!
Sometimes it just happens. I have a horse who has been regularly and appropriately dewormed for years, with the 7-8 years previous to this particular FEC being just twice a year, always clean, and this particular FEC ( few years ago, end of Summer) was suddenly 1500 :eek: I used Quest Plus (with vet’s suggestion and ok, she was not at all concerned about an impaction) and went on our merry way. He’s been clean since, and we did do a Spring and Fall FEC for a few times just to be sure.
Sometimes, it just happens.
Yeah, my low shedder popped high this last FEC, and the one who had worm issues in the past was clean. The vet tech asked if I had possibly mixed up the samples. :lol:
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