November’s Six: Worms and Thrush!

If learning new things is the key to keeping an agile mind, horse ownership is a life preserver hooked up to a winch hooked up to a Taisun. A new horse owner could feel positively flung into the atmosphere of WTF. Apparently, there’s never not something to learn about a horse.

The basics of horse ownership are rigorous. The basics of senior horse ownership in snow country feel like a canter bareback.

Understanding the complexities of proper feed and the optimal time for mineral uptake has required a bit of leveling up. For now, we’re there. Wave a little flag.

Autumn mud season brought new lessons, and the little flag got put down as the worming medication and hoof pick got picked up.

Oh what we have learned about worms!

Worms!

Type “worms” into the Madbarn website and ding dang there are a lot of worms down to hang out in a horse. It is unclear the last time Dagrenning was wormed. When her current pasture mate’s owner mentioned that it was time to worm the horses, the first question that came to mind was, “Oh no, which end are we aiming for?”

Oh but how horse ownership changes the search engine algorithm.

Frequency

Horses with a typical shed cycle should be wormed twice a year

Worms can develop resistance to deworming medication – so worming more than twice a year can make treatment less effective.

Apparently worming horses doesn’t deworm them, it keeps the worm population and damage down.

Worms Consolidate – spread them around

Horses defecate 4-14 times a day.

Horses that pasture together should be wormed within 24 hours of each other.

Moving horses to different pastures is recommended .

Harrowing (spreading manure so that it bakes and dehydrates) abates many types of worms but not all.

Types of worms

In the gut: Pinworms! While not terribly horribly dangerous, a large infestation will cause discomfort and itchiness in the least romantic of places. Pinworms travel the GI tract and then lay eggs in the anus. As any new or veteran horse owner knows, itchy horses solve their own problems and rub against anything that will offer relief. Sores can develop where no one wants a sore.

In the lungs: Lung worms develop in lung tissue which sounds really unfun to host. Common in donkeys who are too tough to show any symptoms, horses will have nasal discharge and a cough.

Large intestine: Small Strongyles.. Are. Everywhere. Horses ingest Small Strongyles as larvae and travel to the colon where they burrow into the cells that surround the blood vessels of the large colon.

When the Small Strongyles become adults, they emerge through the lining of the colon. When lots of Small Strongyles develop all at once, they cause issues such as colic and diarrhea.

Gut! Liver! Lungs! Back to Gut: Roundworms are another parasite that is everywhere. This is one of those worms that isn’t abated by harrowing. When the roundworm is ingested, they boomerang from the gut to the liver and lungs and back again. If the round worm population gets way out of control, the small intestine can become blocked.

Small and large intestine: These things can get big but even at their average size of 3 inches, they are as unwelcome as they are remarkable. The tape worm relies on the Orbatid mite, which lives on grass and hay, to play host. Horses eat the grass or hay and the mite and then the tapeworms mature where the small and large intestine converge.

In healthy adult horses, heavy tapeworm loads will deteriorate a healthy adult horse’s condition, cause colic, diarrhea, and unwelcome weight loss. In senior/geriatric horses like Dagrenning, even light tapeworm loads can cause symptoms of a more pronounced infection.

Worming Dagrenning

The initial attempt was met with Dagrenning’s typical skepticism. Dagrenning likes things introduced to her properly and with etiquette. She sweetly corrected my application tube placement with a little head movement and worming was almost too easy.