Things You'll Need
- Shovel
- Rake
- Tractor
- Mower
- Worm medicines
Instructions
Clean manure from stalls and corral areas daily. Parasite larvae are expelled in fecal matter and can be spread to other adult horses or foals if manure remains accessible. For this same reason, avoid spreading fresh manure directly on fields where horses graze; this minimizes their exposure to worms and other parasites. Even if the manure has been exposed to heat or has been dried well, it's better not to use equine manure on pastures where horses will be grazing.
Cut grass in the fields to reduce hiding places for worms and other parasites. Parasites that have been expelled in horse fecal matter contain either live parasites or eggs. Tall grass provides plenty of hiding places for worms and parasitic bees. Keeping pastures mowed also helps to break up any manure that has been deposited by horses while they are grazing.
Worm mares regularly before they foal. According to equine veterinarian Dr. Robert L. Leonard, foals inevitably eat some of their mother's manure. The bacteria and enzymes that naturally occur there help activate the foal's own immune system. Unfortunately, the foal will also pick up any worms or other parasites that are present in the mare's manure. Keeping a foaling mare's parasites under control will help to minimize parasites in new foals, thereby giving them a better chance of growing to their full potential.
Dr. Leonard also says that starting the foal on a deworming program of an ivermectin product will help to reduce heat scours, a specific type of diarrhea experienced by foals.
Quarantine new horses until parasites are minimized. Bringing a new horse into your barn or pasture -- without first putting it on a worming program -- is a sure way of transmitting parasites to your existing stock. If you don't have the luxury of a separate holding area or pasture, you can speak with the previous owner of your new horse to determine what the worming schedule has been. You should also take a fecal sample to your veterinarian to establish the proper medication regimen for parasite control.
Rotate parasite medicines with different active ingredients to strengthen the medical regimen. Some common ingredients in equine wormers are ivermectin, febendazole, pyrantel pamoate and oxibendazole. Each of these medicines treats different parasites, Horseman's U says. For example, ivermetin is best to treat lungworms, pinworms, large roundworms, large-mouthed stomach worms, bots, large and small redworms, neck threadworms, intestinal threadworms and others. Pyrantel pamoate is effective in treating large and small redworms, tapeworms, large roundworms and pinworms.