any effective non chemical wormers

and the residual wormer in the horse droppings are a concern..

can you shut in your horses for 2 days after deworming? after that your hens should be ok
next idea: may be ask your vet for a dewormer that contains the same stuff as dewormer for hens….
“other” dewormers still lack definite trials as to their efficiency
ps: is nicotin ok in hens?? 😮

Still a valid question though, jac. Ivermectin WILL kill dung beetles, so I am looking for alternatives as well. Also, I am concerned because it seems like in our area the ONLY thing people are using is Ivermectin so I am concerned about resistance in the target parasites.

why not find out, if they have worms to begin with? couple or three samples of their droppings coming up negative and there is a chance they might be without or only with a little worm burden …over here current recommendations are to deworm aggressively, but only when there is a major worm burden
sidenote:
Streptomyces avermitilis is a groundorganism producing Avermectin/Doramectin (naturally); yes, it is still toxic for dungbeetles (dose! as always 😉 ); during summertime dung/soil mixtures will degrade half of their ivomec content within 2 weeks, during winter conditions it will take 3-9 months 🙁

What did they do 40 years ago?? Somebody told me once that a slab of poplar nailed to the fence, the horse chewing the bark off of it will not have worms:confused: Is there any truth to all this or is it small talk?
Like you said Jac that residual build up in everything and everyone, how far can we go??

Mike

I tried several herbal wormers about 6-7 years back. Did a fecal exam before using the wormer, wormed the animals and retested them again 2 weeks later.

The only substance that showed an effect to drive the wormload to minimal resp. non-detectable was the homoeopathic remedy Abrotanum D3. Not sure if it’s available in the US.

Using it to be effective is rather time consuming, though. You have to give it 3 times daily for 10-14 days.

I don’t have horses but cattle and sheep and have used with some success the remedies of Juliette de Bairacli Levy in her book ‘Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable’ – it’s an absolute classic first written in 1952, and still in print today.
She has 3 pages dedicated to worms in horses. Won’t go into all of it but will relate this bit which I’ve tried in a similar way (as a drench) on my sheep and cattle with success….
“For mild cases of worms in horses and foals, garlic treatment given morning and evening is generally sufficient. Merely add three to four grated roots of garlic [she means wild garlic, if unavailable substitute with 3 – 4 individual cloves] to a mash of bran and molasses, continuing the treatment for several weeks….”
The downside of herbal treatments….generally it ain’t ONE SHOT, you have to build their effectiveness up.
I was recently treating a ewe with mastitis with compresses made from Docks (atlast a use for Docks!). After a week of it I realised why everyone was so happy when the ‘quick-fix drugs’ came in! But equally we compromise the animals resilience and vitality by relying too heavily on the chemicals.

hey john, i was always a chewing tobacco wormer, it always worked well in plug form, and probably still does. when molly got ill this winter with some “critter”, i put the ivermectin to her, and it worked so well it killed every living organism in her, good or bad. i’m wondering about pro-biotics, or replacing the good bugs. i started giving her some yogurt in her grain and she likes it well enough, but don’t know how much to give or if it’s even doing her any good. any thought. thanks, mitch