People and other creatures, including animals, can get parasite infestations treated with ivermectin. A variety of nematode and arthropod parasites are treated with ivermectin. Ivermectin is often considered safe for horses when administered at the recommended dose. Ivermectin causes the parasite to become paralyzed and eventually die by interfering with its neurotransmission. Ivermectin is frequently used to treat external parasites like lice, mites, ticks, and the skin-dwelling Onchocerca larvae, as well as large and tiny strongyles, roundworms, pinworms, bots, summer sores brought on by habanera, intestinal threadworms, and lungworms.
Since the beginning of time, parasites have existed, and no horse is entirely immune to them. It suggests that all horses have one or more parasite infections. One of the most concerning impacts of parasite burden is the damage done to your horse's digestive system. Your horse eats most parasites while it is grazing. Once inside your horse, certain parasites tunnel through the digestive, respiratory, and circulatory systems before settling down for good in the large intestine. Parasites harm your horse's gut lining and cause ulcers and inflammation if they are not addressed. Additionally, several parasite species are suspected of causing anemia, colic, and nutritional deficits.
The dewormer's main pharmaceutical component, ivermectin, prevents parasite growth. Current horse dewormers only contain a 1.87% concentration of ivermectin, and the remaining 98.13% of the medicine is filler. Ivermectin only needs a minimal dose to control 43 different parasite types in a 1250 lb. animal. Additionally, studies on horses, foals, breeding stallions, and pregnant and nursing mares have indicated that ivermectin is safe to use.
How Does Ivermectin Work?
Effective equine dewormers must be selectively harmful to the parasite and benign to the host. The dewormers must eliminate the parasites without endangering the horse. Ivermectin interrupts nerve transmission and paralyzes the parasite, preventing it from consuming nutrients or maintaining its location within a horse. As a result, it is ejected with the horse's excrement when appropriately handled. Ivermectin is administered to horses as an oral paste in a single dose and starts to work after 48 hours. A parasite must be exposed to ivermectin for it to work. Ivermectin is, therefore, ineffective against parasite larvae that have penetrated the tissue of a horse. Ivermectin is also weak in treating tapeworms.
Testing your horse's parasite and worm burden before giving the ivermectin allows you to determine the effectiveness of a dewormer like ivermectin. You must evaluate the dewormer's efficacy to determine how effectively a deworming treatment is performed. A test to count the number of eggs in the feces is used to achieve this. A fecal egg count test measures the number of parasite eggs a horse is shedding at the time of the test; knowing this information before deworming your horse enables you to create a baseline to measure your horse's progress after treatment. Conducting a fecal egg count reduction test is a procedure known as (FECT). How to determine whether your horse's dewormer is working has further information regarding fecal egg count decrease tests.
The dosage of ivermectin given to a horse is based on its weight. A commercial livestock floor scale is the most precise method of determining a horse's weight. You can use a weight tape made for horses without a scale. A horse weight tape is a flexible plastic or linen printed with pounds rather than inches or millimetres. Use a piece of tape that is long enough to wrap around the perimeter of your horse. To provide the correct dose of medication, you must modify the ivermectin syringe after learning the horse's weight. The syringe plunger is divided into five equal increments of 250 lbs. You can set the dosage by adjusting the locking ring on the plunger up or down to correspond to your horse's weight.
The ability of the worms in your barn, dry lot, pasture, etc., to endure a treatment that was earlier successful against the same parasite is known as resistance when parasites persist in the treatment and then pass on their capacity for survival to their progeny, resistance increases.
Due to years of over-treating horses with chemical dewormers, resistance has become an issue for horse owners. The ability of the worms in your barn, dry lot, pasture, etc., to endure a treatment that was earlier successful against the same parasite is known as resistance. When parasites persist in the treatment and then pass on their capacity for survival to their progeny, resistance increases; resistance cannot be diminished or reversed once it has formed. When it comes to parasite resistance, ivermectin is not an exception. Ivermectin resistance is seen in acaroid and pinworms, and some emergent resistance in small strongyles.
Final Thoughts
Most internal parasite species and some exterior parasites can be successfully treated with medication. The most significant horse anthelmintic medication is ivermectin. It has served as the primary representative of the ground-breaking medication class known as macrocyclic lactones for equine usage. By interfering with nerve signals, macrocyclic lactones paralyze and kill the parasite. It works particularly well against bots. Even at doses far lower than other dewormers, ivermectin is an effective worm killer. External parasites, including lice, mites, ticks, and the skin-dwelling larvae of parasites like Onchocerca and Habronema, are also eliminated by moxidectin and ivermectin.
