Stopped by the vet on Saturday to pick up the paste wormer. We have been on rotating schedule, worming every 4 months or so. It was a quiet day at the hospital and I asked the vet why horses used a different protocol than dogs and cats. I'm not a big fan of giving medications of any sort unless there is a reason. She pointed out that they have been noticing a resistance to some of the wormers and their policy was now to do a fecal before worming. This makes so much more sense to me than "just" giving them the paste wormer.
We chatted some more and I left with the plan of bringing a sample of Dusty and Jessie on Monday morning. Samples collected and analyzed were negative on both horses and we decided we would re-test in six months. The fecal exams were $22 each, a bit steep compared to my expectations, but cost wise it may work out to be very close and it will be interesting to see how often they actually return a positive test.
We also talked about pricing and procedures on having a foal with Jessie. I'm not really planning anything in the near future, but would like to have one her foals. It was very enlightening to find out how much it would cost for the insemination, pre- and post natal care, and I'll add this to the cost of the stud and the extra housing needed for the foal and see what happens. In reality, and I know this is heresy, but one horse is really enough...for now.
1 comment:
I think FEC are a good idea for two reasons:
1 - why put poison in their system if you don't have to?
2 - it is a way to find out if your current program is working.
Just because you deworm every XX months doesn't mean your dewormer is killing the type of worms your horse has.
FEC here are $10. I'm not sure what dewormer you use but I use Equimax and it typically runs me $13/tube so I save a little bit if my horses don't need dewormed.
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