Does anyone have any good tips on worming youre horse?

Question

I have a Qh who is so hard to worm that he will rear up and strike out at the tube of paste. I have done the non tubed wormer but i just dont like to take the time and i dont think it works as good. He is not trying to hurt me in anyway (he is a 25 year old horse that would not hurt anything). I need to know if any of you have ANY good ideas on what i should do. Also does putting a treat into it work like apple sauce or something.

Answer 1

Taken from Horse-sense...

For you: heavy shoes and your riding helmet. Even if Baya is basically a sane and quiet mare, and even if she was calm until the humans started to get rough with her -- a very good observation on your part, by the way! -- if she has been de-wormed forcefully in the past, she may make sudden movements to avoid anything that looks like a big plastic syringe, and just in case your toes are in the way of a stamp, or your head is in the way of a head-swing, you'll want to be protected. Oh, and wear something that can get really messy, like an old sweatshirt. ;-)

For Baya: nothing. You're going to do this in her stall, and you aren't going to use a leadrope or even a halter. There will be nothing for her to pull against and no restraint for her to worry about.

For the process: a large jar of plain applesauce (not the chunky kind), and a big plastic syringe with the tip cut off so that the hole at the end of the syringe is about the size of a pencil eraser.

Fill the syringe and go visit Baya. Show it to her -- you're not going to sneak up on her -- and put one hand on her nose, about where your bridle cavesson would go. Push the plunger in a little, so that applesauce oozes over the end of the syringe.

Now try to get the end of the syringe into her mouth, very slowly and quietly, from the right side -- horses are usually handled from the left, and she already knows to expect bad things when there's a syringe coming toward her mouth from the left side. All you need to do is get a little bit of applesauce into her mouth, ANYWHERE in her mouth. Then just stand back and let her calm down and think about the taste.

Now do it all again, and again. Take plenty of time, back off whenever she gets too worried, keep talking to her, and get more applesauce into her mouth whenever you get the chance. After a little while, she should be much less worried about the syringe, because none of the usual things have happened: nobody yelled at her, nobody hit her, there wasn't a twitch, and you didn't gang up on her with two other people. You're friendly, you're talking to her nicely, you haven't tied her up, and you haven't forced her to hold still while you shove the syringe into her mouth -- and the applesauce tastes really good. So with all that going on, you'll be able to get a little more applesauce into her -- then just pet her and leave. Let her think about it all, and then come back the next day and do it again.

NEVER yell, NEVER hit, and NEVER try to force the syringe into her mouth.

After a week (at most), she'll be looking for that syringe and opening her mouth for it, and that's when you can begin to teach her that standing quietly with lowered head and open mouth will result in a mouthful of yummy applesauce.

On de-worming day, you'll have TWO syringes: your applesauce one (and the jar of applesauce) and the one full of deworming paste. Give her a few syringes of applesauce, and when she's very relaxed about it, put the paste syringe as far into her mouth as possible, so that she'll swallow it all and not taste it! Then follow up with a few more syringes of applesauce. Instead of resenting the paste de-wormer, she'll barely notice it, and she'll still be looking for her treat.

Just like everything else we do with (and to) horses, de-worming is a process that we can teach them to accept calmly, or it's a process that we can teach them to fear and fight. I'm glad you prefer the first option. It's less dramatic, but it's horsemanship in action. And now that I think of it, real horsemanship is always low-key, quiet, and slow -- never fast or loud or dramatic. That's something to think about!

Jessica

Copyright © 1999 by Jessica Jahiel, Holistic Horsemanship®,
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Answer 2

Strongid makes a feed-through wormer that you mix right in with the grain. The only drawback is that you have to feed the horse daily, and away from other horses so the horse gets its' full dose of wormer.

Have you tried using a humane twitch on him? A twitch doesn't hurt the horse - actually releases endorphins and allows him to relax and not worry about things like a bit of wormer.

I do have to admit that the wormer doesn't taste too good. ;) I was worming one of my horses and as I was pulling the cap off the paste wormer, the horse jerked his head, causing me to hit the plunger and get a bit of it in my mouth. Putting it into applesauce and squirting it into his mouth MIGHT work, but I have a horse who just has an aversion to having anything forced on him so this method may work for others, it doesn't work very well for me.

Answer 3

Something that I have done is put it into a bowl of grain. If you are using a paste wormer it made still be hard to get him to take it this way because he will just pick through it, so I would suggest putting a small amount of warm water into the grain and mixing the paste into it. This will make the consistancy very different, but I have found that they usually love it. Give it a try.

Answer 4

Take a empty wormer tube and smear it with molassis and let him lick it off.
Do it every day.
Put some in the tube and get it into his mouth. give him the contents of the tube.
If you do it every day for a couple of weeks he will learn to think the tube means a sweet treat.
He should get better about it.
They also make a bit like thing that goes into their mouths over their heads like a hatler. It has a tube to put the wormer tube into insde the mouth.

Answer 5

If you have a turn out attached to the stall, feed your horse only in the stall, but the door open. Make sure that the stall is not too small for the horse that it can lay down and get up easily and turn around without a problem. (My gf had a horse that was 17-l/2 hands, needs a big stall - a 10 x 10 would not do.). Try for a couple hours at a time to start and increase as you go along.

Answer 6

Puting the Ivermectin in a treat...such as a apple ..doesn't work very well.
Once they get a taste of it, they quity taking it.
If you get your wormer in the large tube, the applicator comes with a tip that's long & curved.
It places the dose further in the mouth.
Some of our horses have to be snubbed ( tied short to a tree) so they can't rear.
Be careful & don't attempt worming unless there's someone else there.
You just never know when things go wrong.
Be careful with his mouth!

Answer 7

Mix the tube of paste in with his grain. He won't eat it at first but horses will go insane if there is grain in their bucket and they think it tastes gross. They will eat it in a few hours. I used to have to give my horse bute in her grain at night and she would look at the bucket for about an hour and finally eat it. Make sure you stir it in really good or he will eat around it. combocare is apple flavored and takes care of all worms. He might think this tastes a little bit better them regular wormer.

Answer 8

I had to give my 4-yr old thoroughbred antibiotics for 10 days via a tube. He hated it and would freak out like your horse does. I ended up just squirting it in a little bit of grain and he was so food-driven that he didn't notice at all. He ate all of the medicine right up.

Answer 9

Go buy a big syringe (no needle)duh, and fill it with molasses. Smear molasses on the outside so he can smell it. Let him lick it but take it away. Make him ask for it again. After a week or so he will be begging for the syringe. Switch to the paste wormer syringe and smear the outside with molasses so he thinks its the other one. He will take it every time, just be patient.

Answer 10

Why dont you try deworming in pellet form? Just mix with his grain .. No fuss, mess and he will eat..