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RE: [RC] natural horse wormers? - heidi

Elly is right on the mark on this one. 
 
Quite some time ago, Susan G posted about this subject and about a necropsy that she had seen or done on one poor critter that had been "dewormed naturally."  The horse had died of worm-related problems, and was literally full of them.  You will not do your horse any favors by using so-called "natural" dewormers.
 
Mineral supplements may indeed help the horse's natural immunity somewhat, and may help to keep a worm load from being overwhelming--but will not take care of the problem.
 
And don't just trust negative fecal samples, either--depending on the time of year, the health of the horse, etc., you can get a false negative on a fecal sample in a horse that is chock-full of 'em...
 
Heidi



No, there are no natural wormers.  I know a lot of people have reservations about using chemicals on their horses, but wormer is one of those things you're going to have to bite the bullet on.  It's true--effective wormers are one of the main reasons we have horses living well into their 30's these days.  Our pathology professor at the university (who's older than dirt), said that every single horse they necropsied back in the day had strongylus vulgaris lesions in their cranial mesentaric arteries.  These worms can cause, most importantly, thromboembolic colic, which is an extremely serious form of colic (dead worm pieces lodging in very important arterial supplies for large amounts of intestines=painful death).  He said now that worming treatments have become so effective, they see horses in their 30's with the most pristine cranial mesentaric arteries ever.

So there aren't any natural wormers other than rotational grazing, as Linda mentioned, and even then, it's not 100%.

Elly
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