Is Your Horse A Giraffe In Disguise?

Author: Sarah Gallagher BAppSc (Animal Studies) Equine Key Account Manager at Ceva Animal Health

Have you ever had to give an oral medication to a giraffe?

For some horse owners, this is the exact challenge they face anytime it comes to worming their horse ( and for thoseof you who have an easy-to-dose horse, we are mightily jealous!). As soon as we even think the words ‘worming time’, that head is held high in the sky and won’t come down until we are well in the distance. Usually behind them.

Now, some people might consider this horse “naughty”, but the fact of the matter is there are several signs that we give leading up to worming that make them clued on to the fact that something they don’t really enjoy is going to happen.

• Some horses may have been mishandled during an oral dosing of medication and have immediate negative connotations to the process.
• Some horses really don’t like the taste of the product we are using
• Some owners become really worried about dosing and the horse feeds off those vibes
• Some owners rush the process, and this startles the horse

Let’s face it, for some, the process of worming is unlikely to be fun. But a few quick tips below can help reduce the intensity of the situation and at least make the process tolerable!

GO SLOW

If your horse is head high immediately, they are already anticipating the situation is not in their favour. Pushing your horse to tolerate the syringe at this stage, when their brain is situated in the “fight or flight” mode, isn’t going to make next time any easier and may in fact make next time worse. Rather than pushing through this face, think about relaxing and rewarding the horse for doing the right thing – i.e., lowering their head – before proceeding. And yes, if that means using their favourite treat, then I’m all for that!

PRACTICE

It could be advisable to practice the worming process using an empty but clean syringe. You might even find that the dislike isn’t the actual syringe in the mouth but the way the horse is approached with the syringe.
If you get to the stage where you can put the empty syringe easily in the mouth, help them get used to the idea of something coming out of it by filling the syringe with something yummy (like watered molasses, thin apple sauce or even just some sweetened sugar – being mindful of dietary issues, of course).

CHOOSING YOUR WORMER PASTE

There is a lot to consider when choosing your worming paste. First, you need to ensure you are
using the right combination paste to cover the appropriate worms. Secondly, you need to know
how much you will be giving (dosing for the correct weight of your horse).
Once you have those covered, consider the flavour of the wormer to make it more palatable.

AMMO Allwormer paste for horses covers all important worms including strongyles, roundworms (including ivermectin and abamectin resistant roundworms), pinworms, bots and tapeworms (to name a few). The syringe doses up to 600kg of bodyweight, and as an added bonus, AMMO Allwormer paste comes in a peppermint flavour, one of the top flavours chosen by horses, not people!
With these handy tips, you should begin to see less giraffe and more of that pony you love.