HOW TO DEAL WITH INTERNAL INTERNAL PARASITES

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Mother cows should be treated with anthelmintics just before they calve (to prevent them from passing the worms to their offspring) and again 90 days later. Paste or bolus (big pill) forms work well. Remember ... don't drink any of your cow's milk until the time period during which the vermicide can be detected in the milk is over, Also, be sure (by following your vet's advice) that the parasiticide you use won't ''dry up" your cow and make her stop producing milk.

SHEEP. Parasitism is the number one health problem in sheep ... and is directly related to how well they are fed, so it pays to indulge the appetites of your woolly friends. Sheep worms also experience spring rise . . . in other words, the pests really come out swinging after winters over. Therefore, don't forget to give your flock—every year—a thorough intestinal "spring cleaning".

COATS. These are such argumentative creatures that adding the anthelmintic to their feed—and making certain each one eats a fair share—is probably the easiest way to worm your Nannies and Billies. The feeding technique is made especially convenient by the fact that most broadrange worm medicines come in easy-to-eat granular and liquid forms.

HORSES

Horses can carry a cavalry of internal riders . . . so many that you may need to worm the steeds pretty clanged steadinessly just to stay on top of their parasite problems. That's one reason why I put such a long list of horse anthelmintics on the bug-and-drug chart: so you can switch your "weaponry" often enough to keep the vermin from developing a resistance to any one medication. (The other reason is that-since you don't milk horses-you can use a greater variety of anthelmintics on them than can safely be administered to ruminants.)

Among the nastiest of the equestrian parasites are the larvae of the strongyle bloodworms. These "bugs" migrate into the arteries that supply the small intestine, and thus the parasites can actually block off some of a horse's blood flow ... causing acute intestinal pain (colic).

Bots (the larvae of the Gasterophilus fly) are an equally nagging juvenile invader. The hardcoated, sluglike shysters can cover almost the entire surface of a horse's stomach. Horses ingest the parasites by innocently chewing or licking the spotlike-and visible to the human eyeeggs ... which flies deposit on the critters' slick coats.

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