I went up to see My Boy today, after a week of late work days. I was happy to see that his leg scrapes are healing well. They are big and scabby. The kind of scab little kids get on their knees and would start to pick off. I am already seeing new pink healthy skin under the minor scrapes, but I think the worse one still has another week or so to go.It was also worming day. Oh boy. This time he needed the boticide wormer that I could only find in a paste/gel, not a pellet form. And lately he'd been snubbing his nose at the gel mixed with his grain anyway (which worked a few times!) I decided to enlist the help of Paint Girl's Other Half.
He hadn't helped me worm My Boy this way for a while. I had him shower My Boy with apple slices. Then he tried to get a hold of My Boy's muzzle while I held him. Paint Girl casually waited off to the side with the paste tube hidden behind her. It didn't matter, he knew. Horses are more aware and tuned-in then we ever give them credit! It was a three-man effort, I tell you.
My Boy would have none of the muzzle grabbing. Luckily, the OH is super strong and we were able to keep him from backing up 100 feet like he does with a vet trying to twitch him. Finally, the OH almost had it, but lost his grip. My Boy is a master at the shaking his head to avoid you thing. Then the OH said, "What if I just stick my finger in his mouth?" So he did and My Boy started opening his mouth and gagging and licking and Paint Girl came up and slipped the wormer in the side and ta-da- easy peasey! Now, whether or not this will work next time is a theory to test, but perhaps this is a new solution to a challenging problem!? I would have made the OH brownies for his help, but it looks like Paint Girl took care of that!
A small blob of wormer ended up on Paint Girl's hand, and another tiny splosh was spat out on the gravel. We made sure to hose it down to clean it up. Paint Girl's pups like to lick up and nibble on anything they can. Horse paste wormer is highly toxic to dogs! The dogs were locked in the garage at the time, but I didn't want them to wander out later and find trouble.
The weather has really changed. It finally feels like fall. I let My Boy lawn mow a bit after the worming experience and leg tending, and he was a happy camper in the late afternoon sun. But I was a freezing Pony Girl in a just a hoodie over a long-sleeved tee! Definitely time to start wearing my down barn jacket!
I just had to throw in this big fattie for Paint Girl, knowing how she just adores those arachnids! I love the striped detail on this one's legs. Do you think it is a female, is she about to lay her egg sac?P.S. This spider really wasn't that big at all, I just zoomed in the picture and it looks a lot bigger!
The reason my OH suggested slipping the finger in your boy's mouth, is because that is the only way we can deworm Fritzy, and it works. We can't get a twitch on her, or grab a hold of her nose. The finger in the mouth trick came from my trainer, I use to have my trainer deworm Fritzy for me, because we were having so many problems with it. Now it seems to get easier every time!
ReplyDeleteHorses sure do know what is coming, that's for sure. I did like how my OH was able to hold your boy so he couldn't escape. He has the strength to do it.
Hey, I will get you back for that ugly spider picture! That grossed me out!!
I certainly know about the worming challenges. Dusty is much better than he used to be. If only we could get the fly spray mastered! LOL! Glad you were able to get the job done without anyone getting fingers bitten off or hurt!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Paint Girl LOVED the spidey! I'm glad your pills leg is healing now we can go adventuring!
ReplyDeleteJust curious but have you tried clicker training?
ReplyDeleteI haven't used it myself but I've read quite a few articles where people have used it for problems like this.
Dewormer isn't toxic to all breeds but most are at least sensitive to it. I'm pretty sure that it is toxic to the Aussies though. Good job being alert about that!
{cdncowgirl}~ You're right, Paint Girl just mentioned to me that the Aussies (and Border Collies, I think) are more sensitive to the wormer than other dog breeds.
ReplyDeleteAround here we keep that a pretty steady practice when deworming the horses. Just slipping that finger in the corner of their lips and shooting the paste in, then of course head up till they swallow or they might loose it out of their mouths LOL!
ReplyDeleteI haven't popped by in a while, so I just now checked out your new style blog, incorporating your photos and new layout. Love, love, love .... :)
ReplyDeleteI used to have trouble worming Siete, but one day, I decided to use the stall door to help me hold her. I put her in the stall, wearinng her halter and lead rope, held the lead rope over the top of the stall door and closed it so she was close to the door with her head over it. Then, I did the finger in her mouth trick and held the lead rope close to the clip while I shot the dewormer in. I braced myself with the stall door. When she realized that she couldn't back up, she just let me do it. I tried it the next time using the fence in the pasture, with me on one side and Siete on the other. The fence helped me hold her close with the lead rope. Now, she doesn't mind at all, as long as there's a fence or a stall door between us and she realizes that she can't back away. Not having to ask someone else to help me is good, and I've noticed that the horses are less anxious if it's just me and them doing anything "medical". Glad My Boy's leg is healing well!
ReplyDeleteAll my horses (3 of my own and the 4 others I worm) worm easily, and take medicines by mouth, even nasty tasting stuf - a couple had to be trained with approach/release, but there'll all good as gold now. Most of them can be wormed without even a halter on. Another trick (thanks to Melissa at Paradigm Farms!) is to put the horse's breakfast or dinner in a feed bag, and put the wormer on top, and then put the feed bag on the horse - voila! worming accomplished. Sounds like the technique you used worked for you, which is great!
ReplyDelete{Victoria}~ Great idea! Since we don't have a barn or wood fences, getting the horses in a good place such as your recommended is challenging, though. With one of Paint Girl's mares, they do put her head over her gate, wrap the lead around the post, and hold her halter to do it. When the vet comes for shots, she always says "can we back him against a wall..." and we tried the chain link kennel fence, garage.... once we backed him into a corner in Paint Girl's horse's shed etc., to no avail, he'll go forward or sideways. Running forward through us really made me mad, because it was so dangerous. He was just too strong for us to contain and usually VERY respectful on the halter/lead. He was just stressed and pushed to his limit, self-preservation kicks in. He's such a worrywart. Kind of like me, I guess that is why we are such a good pair, lol!
ReplyDeleteWhen I worm, I hook my four fingers in the noseband of the halter and then stick my thumb in the side of her mouth. I can keep pressure on the side of her mouth because of my fingers in the halter. then I take my other hand and slip the wormer into the mouth right next to my thumb. Voila! I can worm even the tough cookies this way.
ReplyDeleteBTW - Keep an eye on your dogs for a few days after worming too. Dogs (at least the dogs I know!) like to eat horse poop and if they eat the poop right after a worming, they can get sick too.
As always - I enjoy reading your blog - keep it up with the great pictures
the fingers in the mouth trick is a pretty good one .I have used it for a long time as since my arthritis has hit my shoulders I don't have the strength to grab the muzzle . They still fight a little but it is way easier to just slip the wormer in quick ans be done.
ReplyDeleteLily can be a bit of a pill when it comes to deworming too! Ug, we've had a spider explosion in our area, they're everywhere!
ReplyDeleteDo you go in from the side of the mouth at the back??? it's best there so they can not spit out so much. About every 3rd time Jesse decides he may not want his dose and I have to enlist "Spanky or the Bossman" so Jesse decides that he might as well take it cause they will make sure it happens and why go through all that trauma! he is not a trauma guy at all and would always just cowhorsethe@#$%up and just do it!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's that time again already? I just ran out of the daily Strongid C I give my two. I've been working so much, I haven't been able to get to the store to get some paste.
ReplyDeleteMy two are pretty good at avoidance too but I generally manage to slip the paste in the side of their mouth, shoot, hold their head up in the air and stroke their throat until I think they've swallowed.
Here's a few things I've learned:
ReplyDeletewormer is TOXIC to herding breeds + greyhounds (and mongrels who derive from those breeds). If your dog has "eyebrows" to communicate important information to stupid creatures like sheep, it's a herding dog and needs to stay very far away from ivermectin.
Worming horses the endurance girl way: at an endurance event, I may have to administer 6 or more doses of electrolyte paste ("bleeechhh!") in a single day. I start syringe training a horse as soon as I know it's going to be an endurance mount. I start with a small amount of applesauce in a large dosing syringe. Applesauce is yummy. Horse wants MORE! I add a little more applesauce for the next dose, given several hours or even several days later. After 5 or 6 doses of applesauce, I mix a small amount of e-lyte into the sauce and shoot it in. Then, back to just applesauce. After a few shots of straight applesauce, I mix in a larger amount of e-lyte. At this point, horse is convinced that MOST TIMES it's applesauce.
From there, throw wormer at him. Then, back to applesauce until you can give it from the saddle. It works!
Agghhhhh! Creepy! But a rather cool photo nonetheless!
ReplyDeleteWay to go on de-worming My Boy. He looks like he's doing a good job at getting rid of the taste with that yummy grass! hehe!
I don't know if I will ever try to give my mare wormer via the tube again. After her pull-back-and-break-the-weld-on-the-pipe-rail that slammed into me and threw me into the ground, breaking my knee.....
I'm too scared of dealing with her again.
She loves sweet feed and would probably even eat it if I poured green chilies and hot sauce on it, so I just give her the paste wormer in her grain. No stress or injuries for her or for me. whew!
~Lisa
That is good you guys figured out a way to worm your Boy. The things we put these horses through for their own good. People are exactly the same when they are little. I can remember when Maizie was a baby. She would always start crying when I would exit the expressway to go to her doctor's office. She knew that was the place with the shots! She was way too little to know such things (or so I thought). Medicine and doctors make every species freak out!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to share how we teach our horses to take wormer with no fight. We fill a syringe with apple sauce and give the horse several syringes full of apple sauce. They might start out resisting, but as soon as they figure out it tastes good they stand there and take it easily. Then I give them the wormer followed up with 1 or 2 more syringes full of apple sauce. It has worked on every horse we have ever had and it is no problem worming them. If your horse is really bad I would periodically give him apple sauce with no wormer. Then when worming day comes he actually looks forward to it!
ReplyDeleteI'll remember that trick in case mine decide to give me a fit about it. I usually just start giving them a bunch of cookies, then whammo, they get the wormer, and more cookies before they have a chance to realize that's what just happened. They're such chow hounds, all they care about are the cookies.
ReplyDeleteTry using ATLAST! Fly Spray. It is 100% organic and cedar oil based. Your horse WILL know the difference between ATLAST! and other fly sprays!
ReplyDeleteGo to www.atlastflyspray.com for more info
At my place, dewormers are always followed by a treat. Then I know they swallowed it all.
ReplyDeleteI love spiders, seriously! She's pretty!
ReplyDeleteArmani doesn't care for wormer either.
I never considered horse wormer being toxic to dogs....thanks for pointing that out, I can't believe I'd never thought of it. I wonder if it's the same for cats? As always, LOVE the photos! And I'm really liking the new photo of you with your creatures. Nice. =)
ReplyDeleteI have never wormed my own horse! That is so bad. i think to worm you have to be fast and sneaky, and I am more of a straightforward and slow person. I end up spending 5 minutes explaining to the horse what I am about to do and how I know she will help me. Well, no horse I know speaks english so this is just plain SILLY.
ReplyDeleteLately I have been trying to train my horse to open her mouth when I scratch her head in a certain place! Is this not the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard of? I should spend my time learning how to trim, rasp, shoe and deworm!!!
That was a great picture.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about your deworming debacle. Fun times.
I do the grain trick. When my horses got wise to that I put the grain in a tub then the wormer then then I top it with a glop of straight molassis.. Neither of my horses can resist molasses. Gulp its gone. I have done this with pills too. Mix them with water until they desolve then pour on grain and pour in molasses. You want to absolutely make sure you clean the tub because dogs love molasses too and will want lick the tub out if you dont clean them up.
ReplyDeleteI seldom have someone to help so I have to figure out how to get things done by myself. This has worked so far. I like the applesauce technique someone mentioned. I might try that if I need to change techniques.
{Triple Star}~I was just thinking about using molases last night! Can you just get it at the grocery store? Like you, I don't always have help, and I like to try to do things w/my horse without making my poor sister's other half always having to help. Although I think he was pretty tickled that HIS technique was successful, LOL!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a couple of folks beat me to the old applesauce/syringe trick! That has worked for me very well and it's easy to worm our lot.
ReplyDelete