Take That, You Maggot!

Back when I first got Quzqo (back in 2004!), I was delighted to find out he was easier than anything to paste worm. Ole Tezlu, my previous horse, was nigh impossible, he'd literally hide his head in the corner of the stall (I can't see you, you don't exist), I'd have to haul his head around, then he'd clamp his lips tight, so I'd have to force the end of the worming syringe in between his iron lips and get it towards the back of his tongue. Then once I squirted the worming paste in, he'd refuse to swallow it, and stand there, lips clamped together, melting wormer oozing from the corners, giving me the stink-eye and sulking.

But with Quzqo, who was young and ignorant, he took the syringe like a dream, swallowed the paste, then had an attitude of "well, now what shall we do?"

But then the barn owner decided they'd take over worming all the boarders' horses, so the horses would be on the same schedule, and that would eliminate the possibility of one irresponsible boarder neglecting their horse, and then spreading worms throughout the pasture. Well, okay, I guess, it's not my barn after all. A couple of times a year an extra $9 or $10 charge would show up on my board bill, which meant Quz got wormed. Okay.

Well, hate to say it, but it's been years since I saw that charge, and I can't imagine (the way things are in this economy) that he'd been being wormed for free. I know that these days people no longer worm every 8 weeks, instead maybe in the spring and the fall, or only after a fecal test. But Quz is getting ribby, and the top of his tail is all frazzled, like they get when they've been rubbing their butts on things to scratch an itch...a classic sign of worms!

So tonight I stopped at TSC and splurged on a tube of no-brand Ivermectin (hey, it was $5 cheaper than Zimecterin, and had the exact same stuff in it, just no ad campaign), and headed to the barn.

I don't know how they'd wormed him in the past. I know how they deal with horses for vaccinations or Coggins tests, and I know the barn owner's impatience with fussy little horses, so I could only imagine Quz being cornered in his stall, having his ear pulled to subdue him, having nasty wormer shoved in his mouth... so I expected a full blown Drama Queen performance this evening!

Surprise is a good technique, so I went into the pasture and brought him to the gate, with the wormer in my jacket pocket. Before we left the pasture, I brought out the syringe, he sniffed it curiously (it did smell good...apple flavored!), but as soon as I raised it towards him, UP went the head, high as he could go, and he started backing away. But hey, we had the entire pasture (maybe 20 acres or so), lots of room, and he's not that tall, so I was able to squidge the end of the syringe into his mouth, and squirt the goo onto the back of his tongue. He made faces and smacked his lips, and allowed me to rub his forehead and pat his neck and heap further praise upon his wonderful Self for being so good!!

I was surprised myself, I was expecting all sorts of theatrics! Maybe Bob hadn't misused him for previous wormings, or maybe it'd been so long he forgot, or maybe he trusted me. But I feel better now that he's full of poison, hopefully killing any uninvited interlopers.

He got a reward of grazing on the two-foot tall grass by the barn while I played with the barn corgis. I probably won't put him on an 8 week rotation of worming, but at least this should clean him out for now.