Worming talk at Bransby

[jennyb]

"Worming - the way forward" talk will be held at Bransby this Thursday evening, 7.30pm start. The talk will be given by Liz Barrett, Technical Advisor for Virbac.

The talk will cover information on worms, worming, dung sampling, how wormers work, rotation of wormers, etc. All your questions about worming will be answered!

This talk is free of charge and includes refreshments.

Hope to see you there!!!

[swallowsmum]

i would have loved to come, but i don't think i would make it on time. shame as our yard has had some worming issues lately and i have become quite intrested it the subject!

[gizzypop]

oh missed this one, and my friend has just been studying worming as part of her distance learning course so I know she would be interested.

More notice Jenny please. Do you have information on what you've got planned this year. Your just down the road so would be very interested

[jennyb]

Check out page three, Garry put advance warning up about the talk on 15th April!!!

Garry has also put info up about our other training days, he is doing one and there is also a donkey training day as well. I don't normally duplicate threads, but I was in a rush and couldn't find Garry's to up it!

[gillb]

Jenny did you go to the talk? Any pearls to drop before us? What is the way forward in their view?

It's always interesting to know what is being said.

As it was given by Virbac I would guess it was about horses weighing more than you think so you need to use their products which come in larger size syringes?

There is a full downloadable list of wormers in use for horses, from all the manufacturers, on our website: www.westgatelabs.co.uk/wormers-available-for-treating-horses.pdf

[jennyb]

Yes, I did go, it was very good! I've seen the talk a few times before as Liz is an old school friend of mine.

She explained about each different type of worm, their life cycle, how they affect the horse, etc, and passed round some revolting looking samples! Their major recommendation for worm control is to poo pick the paddock at least twice a week, as the worms won't have time to develop and infest the pasture if the droppings are removed within 3-4 days. Then the other ways to control worms really depend on the circumstances in which the horse is kept. On a yard where the grazing is shared and there are lots of horses, maybe some comings and goings, ideal is to follow a worming programme with everyone using the same product at the same time. On a yard like mine with individual turnout and no cross contamination, you can introduce worm counts to identify the carriers and those with a high burden, then begin strategic worming to worm those horses as and when they need it, still worming for encysted small redworm and tape unless you do ELISA tests as well. In fact she said on her yard (30+ horses), they do faecal egg counts as and when needed (regularly for those horses whose worm burden is not really known yet, twice yearly for her mare), worm twice a year, once for tape and once for encysted redworm, and they don't have a problem with high worm burdens. New arrivals are wormed and kept on separate pasture for a few days.

She did say new arrivals need to be treated carefully, particularly if they look "wormy", and that vet advice is best sought in those cases to make sure that you target the horse with the right products to avoid making the situation worse.

Re the larger syringes, she said that a lot of owners underestimate their horse's bodyweight by up to 20%, meaning that when dosing with wormer, the worms are exposed to a sub-lethal dose of the drug, which then promotes resistance to worming drugs. She recommended using a weigh bridge if you have access, or if not using a weigh tape. Virbac and Dodson and Horrell's tape has been proven to be the most reliable, both by Virbac themselves and also a trial here at Bransby with our weigh bridge! The reason for them making the tube bigger was that their research indicates that quite a few horses are over 600kg bodyweight and therefore would not get enough treatment from one syringe. I think she said only 6% of their trial sample was over 700kg bodyweight.

She also highlighted the wide spread resistance to fenbendazole. She obviously recommended rotation of the summer grazing wormer on an annual or biannual basis, and pointed out that you should ensure you are changing the drug, and not just the brand.

It was pointed out that Equimax does not treat encysted small redworm too!

That's about all I can remember now. Someone asked about your kits, Gill, and Liz said that she had no experience of them and that the reliability depended on how quick the samples were processed. I did point out that you have always returned my results within 3 days ish, so she said in that case it was fine to use - do I get a loyalty discount?!

[jennyb]

Just had a look at your link Gill - Eraquell doesn't have an "e" on the end, and also the dosing interval as per the literature I have from last night is 8-10 weeks.

Liz did say that Equest was a fantastic wormer and very effective against the encysted stages of small redworm, but she did have concerns about using it four times a year. The reason for this is that it will pretty much kill all encysted small redworm EXCEPT those who are starting to develop resistance to it. If you worm once and leave all but the resistant worms, then repeat the dose 13 weeks later, you are encouraging the resistant worms to thrive and flourish and make up a larger part of the population than the non-resistant worms. If we get wide-spread resistance to this drug, we are stuffed, as it is the most effective drug at clearing this worm.

In fact, farmers are being encouraged to NOT worm wormy cattle and sheep with this drug, so that the non-resistant worms start to flourish again and out-breed the resistant ones, to dilute the level of resistance.

Just a thought for you

[swallowsmum]

jennyb- would it be possible for me to bob swallow on bransbys weigh bridge when i come for garrys workshop???.......im trying to keep an eye on her weight, and i am getting completely conflicting weights with the weightape i am using.....i get a different reading each time i use it...supposed to take an average weight from several readings done at same time, but they really vary...its anightmare! my friends had the same problem when shes used it too!!!

it would be great to get an accurate reading....and then maybe i will get a dodson and horrell tape if that ones better!!!

[jennyb]

I'm not really the one to ask, you need to ring either Verity (Welfare Manager) or Jo (Welfare Assistant) on 01427 788386. Just tell them you're coming to Garry's demo. Not really sure if we are insured for public use of it, but it doesn't hurt to ask!

[gillb]

Thank you Jenny for that most comprehensive and interesting summary. That is all pretty much the same as our current knowledge base, as you would expect.

And thanks for mentioning us too, much appreciated.

Apologies for the spelling error! When planning interval worming programmes it is normal to use approx two months (8-9 weeks) for an ivermectin gap, hence it says 8 weeks on our list.