All horses at pasture will pick up worms at some stage. Unless regular anthelmintics (wormers) are given, these worms can build up and cause disease such as weight loss, diarrhoea, colic, thrombosis (clots) and other rarer conditions.
There are several types of worms and related parasites. The most important in England are:
Roundworms (especially in foals), tapeworms, redworms (small and large strongyles) and bot fly larvae.
An ideal worming regime will cover the following points:
- Treatment of tapeworms in the Spring and Autumn.
- Treatment of strongyle larvae encysted in the intestinal wall at the beginning and end of the grazing season.
- Treatment of the bot larvae when they are in the stomach in e.g. December. This must be after the first frosts to ensure the adult flies have died and no more eggs will be laid.
- Isolation and treatment of new horses before access to pasture.
- Reduction of pasture contamination by all of the above and good pasture management, e.g. pick up of droppings and pasture rotation.
The effectiveness of a worming regime can be checked using routine faecal worm egg counts and blood sampling of any underweight horses. In low-stocked pastures worm egg counts can be used to see if routine worming is necessary. Worming for tapeworms (March and Sept) and encysted larvae (end of grazing season) should be carried out each year regardless of results.
This all sounds very complicated but can be covered with the following, simple worming regime:
WORMING REGIME
Different wormers have different active ingredients and treat different types and life stages of worms/flies.
We recommend the following worming protocol:
MARCH: Equest Pramox
JUNE: Equest
SEPTEMBER: Equest Pramox
DECEMBER: Equest.
For new horses:
Worm on arrival with Equest Pramox then keep in for 72 hours.
There may be occasions where the vet recommends a 5 day double dose panacur treatment.
For Young stock:
From 2 months old with Ivermectin monthly until 6 months old then onto adult regime.
For pregnant mares:
Equest (NOT Equest Pramox) or Panacur.
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