Ideas on getting the wormer into the horse needed.

[ClaireLV]

I have never had a horse as difficult as Avalon to worm. I haven't got a dose into her yet. I use the paste and this last time I held her head up and massaged her throat for EVER. You think she's swallowed it and then blahhhhh all over the floor (thats on a good day). I don't want to give her continuex because I just got her to eat her feed with her MSM and joint supplement in it. It takes forever to get her to eat new stuff, sometimes you have to give up. :curse: mares
I confess to being clueless as to other methods of worming, but there must be some other ways...?

[Crooked Horse]

hey...try putting applesauce in the applicator and give her that for a few days...you might be able to trick her in about a week!

[LynnC]

I have dipped the applicator in molasses (sp?). That usually helps them get it right down. I have also had a bucket with about a hand full of sweet feed and once I have given the wormer, I give a handful of feed and then they swallow it with the feed. Also I think that Valley Vet has a halter type device that helps keep the horses mouth open so you can get the wormer further back. I hope this helps.

[ZenRider]

Persistance. :hahaha: One thing my guys have learned is if I start something I'm going to finish it. So, they have given up and are pretty good about taking the wormer. Of course, if I don't hold their heads up they will try to spit it out.
Flynn's always been easy, or at least I don't remember him being difficult. Then again when I first had him, the vets were still tube worming horses twice a year and the tube wormers were almost none existant, though you could get pelleted wormers. So, most people would tube worm twice a year. I guess Flynn decided right away that the past wormers are definitely better than having a tube shoved up his nose.

Zen, well, I had to chase him around his stall the first few times I did him. He can back up real fast in a circle, by the way. :horsie: This, but backwards hehehe But I just stuck with him, not making a big deal about it. Until I could get it in his mouth. Now, he's not happy about it, but takes it well enough.

I do know people that have done the applesauce in the suringe routine with success, but I'm just too lazy to get that involved. :coffee:

[Laura]

For my gelding I had to mix it with a little treat of molasses coated sweet grain.. he was pretty smart.. but he would usually give up cuz he couldn't stand to leave the grain alone! He would eventually lick the pot clean!!!

[adcooper]

ClaireLV, I start at the corner of the mouth and poke the syringe back pretty far between the teeth and cheek. If I put it on top of her tongue, she just spits it out, but when it's deep enough and tucked to the side she seems to cope better. Maybe they have fewer taste buds on the sides of their tongues, I really don't know. I don't apologize, and I work quickly. It's become pretty much a non issue for Cypress, but at first she was such a turkey about letting me in her mouth. I think the applesauce idea is good. Make the association a positive one--"See! When I put stuff in your mouth you are so HAPPY! Good horse! Happy horse!" LOL

[Einstein]

I am sooooo mean :smirk: Nate and I went rounds on this. He kicked a vet in the head too. He's so big and used to being a :curse: bully. So here's my Irish method: I take a long soft lead rope, hook it to the halter, wrap it under 1 front leg, then up around the heart girth, and tie tight to itself. [glow=red,2,300]BIG WARNING[/glow] they can and will try to flip over. I only do this outside on dirt. Nate learned the hard way to just stand.

See what I mean about being a horrible horse owner? But doing it this way for me and Nate, I have no struggleing, no twitch, no problems, and no one get hurt. This is also what I have to do to clip his legs and head if I can't drug him. He can't throw his head, so I can worm him now!

I tried desensitizing him for over 1 year, almost every day, befor dinner. He was good, he ate. Never got to be able to touch him with the clippers! So, my Irish method, and it's like he knows he can't win this one, so he stands and takes it, while moomy makes him pretty ;D

Oh, and after 1 year of tying him down to worm him, guess what? The last time I wormed him, I didn't need to! I still do for clippers but not to worm now. He didn't want to learn from Natural Horsemanship ;D

[Smay]

I admire you for manhandling that big ole Nate-horse! So he just WON'T let you do that kind of stuff, but submits to having his leg tied up? That is a cool method if you're woman enough to try it! Some horses just won't submit, even after a million years of coaxing, will they. Big warmbloods are probably prime candidates. Man, you'd never know from looking at his immaculate-groomed pictures that he was so hard to keep show-ready! Oh, and CLaireLV, they have a new dispenser for ivermectrin that I saw recently, that has a longer "trigger" and is easier to dose 'em with one-handed. I have this trouble with Teddy, but once I get it squirted in there...that's the hard part...he doesn't spit it out ever. I do like Ad....I squirt it into his cheek rather than on his toungue. It must get stuck in there, cause he nevers gets it out...it's getting it IN that is the trouble!

[Einstein]

SMay, you make me laugh! I did it the first time beacuse he kicked the vet in the head and sent two of our barn workers to the hospital. He was called dangerous on the ground and for riding him. He really was 1 step a way from the auction. I thought, "What do I have to lose?" And it worked! But he did sit down and try to flip over, so that's why I say use with extreme caution. I think some warmbloods are too big flightly for their own good.

Yup, Nate is a royal pain in the :curse: to get ready for show, so unfortunatel, when he is showing, he lives inside and is constantly kept cleen. Good news is he hasn't shown in 2 years ;D Bad news is Porter is done until Fall, so Nate is gonna show all summer. Won't that be fun for all of us? ;D

[Shannon]

God, she was an expert. Does Avalon ptooey it back out with a bunch of gunk mixed with it? My mare would swish it around and get it mixed in with enough grass or whatever to get a big blob that she could sling back out. I always reached in first and swiped along her tongue and teeth to clean it out. (This is assuming that she'll let you do it, but it you're quick and gentle, I've never had a problem.)
I tilt the head up while I am squirting the wormer in, and also push the tube as far back along the cheek from the corner of the mouth that I can. And have you ever heard of blowing in a cats nose to make them swallow a pill? Also works on horses pretty well!

[Skye Pilot]

I had a horse that would flip if you tried to worm him.... a vet told me to get the Pour ON ivemectin for pigs and put 10 cc in the grain...... didn't have to deal with the fight.

With my young horses, I worked for days putting an empty applicator in there mouth and only removed it when they relaxed. Started with my finger (watch the teeth) then moved up to using the applicator after I bored the horse to death putting my finger in their mouth. I let them get use to the applicator without the nasty stuff being shot down their throat. Then when it was worming day....it went smoothly.

[Lynne]

the deworming manufacturers that is, in a supppository!


seems more direct? LOL! A really loooong one! Perhaps on the end of a red hot poker?

Then, if they really tork you off when you're doing it you can let it all go and literally shove it up their *** I mean "appropriate receptacle"...

[Katmease]

We use the Ivomec cattle pour on (per our vet), put it in a hospital type syringe & slip it in at the corner of the mouth & push. It's such a small amount that all it does is spray in their mouth & they can't spit it out.

[ClaireLV]

Thanks for all the suggestions, some I had already tried and failed with, but I think I might try into the cheek, rather than back of the tongue next time, I seem to vaguely remember doing that with a horse way back when... (I have the memory of a goldfish - no really!)
I can't put anything in her feed, and she won't eat apple sauce or anything else suspiciously delivered (or even delivered conventionally sometimes). She is a typical old broodmare . I might try that new fangled syringe thing out if the cheek thing doesn't work.

[ZenRider]

Let me see if I understand this, ClaireLV, you put a goldfish into a horses cheek Any particular therapudic reason? Or was the goldfish in your cheek and the horse was just watching? :hahaha: