Deworming Info

So I just had a conversation with Rijkens' veterinarian Dr. Bill Stone about Rijkens' deworming schedule.  In the year and a half that I've owned him, Rijkens has been on Strongid C2X daily dewormer, and a bi-annual paste deworming.  Last year I did a five day Panacur power pack followed by Quest plus in January 2013 and then Zimectrin gold in July 2013.

Dr. Stone's program is to keep him on the daily dewormer, then he rotates yearly between ivermectin/praziquantel (delivered as Equimax) and moxidectin/praziquantel (delivered as Quest plus gel).  Dr. Stone explained that for the horses at Twinwood he likes to de-worm every two months from Labor Day to Memorial Day then give them the summer off.

Dr. Stone's reason: here in the Houston area parasites can't really live out in the pasture in the summer months due to the heat.  In Dr. Stone's words "It cooks them."  Yet it never really gets cold enough in the winter to kill parasites.  He explained that praziquantel has less resistance while products like Panacur (fenbendazole) are more likely to have parasites build up a resistance. 

For Rijkens going forward, Rijkens will continue the daily Strongid C2X (pyrantel tartrate). Dr. Stone will deworm him this week (February 3, 2014) with Quest plus (moxidectin/praziquantel), then again in April and again in June.  Then give the summer off of paste deworming and re-start the fall/winter/spring deworming every two months with Quest plus again in September.  In 2015 he will rotate back to ivermectin/praziquantel (Equimax) following the same every-two-months-from-Labor day-to-Memorial day.