Hi Dr. Dan,
I just read an article about Bots. Never really knew much about them but they sound scary. My horse ( the one with the head-shaking that the Aller-check seems to be keeping at bay) is on your Bug Check. Does the Bug Check help with a bots infestation as you say it helps with the fly infestation? The article said to give a horse Ivermectin to kill the bots. However, the manure sample I sent to you came back clear and I don’t worm with anything but your Worm check. I wouldn’t know a Bot from a spot so am I in good shape on this? I still have two more tubes of Worm Check but he is getting 2 scoops of Bug Check a day for the mosquitos. Advice?
Bobbi G.
We can’t say that Worm Check kills bots for sure. We would have to kill horses to definitely determine because it would be very rare to show up on a fecal exam.
Bot eggs are laid by bot flies. The horses bite the eggs off and get the bot larvae in the stomach. Bug Check will help reduce the flies originally getting onto the horse, but not necessarily keep all bot flies and there eggs off the horse. If you see the little yellow bot eggs on your horses legs then chances are he does have bots. Of course we would use a bot scrapper of some sort to help keep them off when grooming as well.
We would use the Worm Check as well and in horses with compromised immune systems or situations where they frequently have other worms when fecals are done, we would give Worm Check 3 days in a row even. We don’t use chemicals personally however regardless of the bot eggs being on the horse. Is this 100% effective…
I doubt it honestly, but feel that if the horses immune system is good as possible too (Health Check, Aller Check or Joint check, off commercial feeds etc. ) that is still a better route than chemicals.
For a head shaker… I would be very careful with any chemical because as you know, chemicals are the most likely cause .. at least in my opinion. Sort of a catch 22 in your case… Of course, we always use Bug Check and use it year round… in late summer, we generally increase the daily amount given because of bot flies. Hope this helps
