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:
- Prevention of drug resistance by rotation of the general wormer used each year.
- Treatment of tapeworms in the Spring and Autumn.
- Treatment of strongyle larvae encysted in the intestinal wall at the beginning (Feb) and end (Oct) 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 (Oct) 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
YOU NEED TO USE A "GENERAL" WORMER THROUGHOUT THE YEAR AT INTERVALS AS PER THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE PACKET. (THIS "GENERAL" WORMER NEEDS TO BE CHANGED EVERY YEAR TO REDUCE DRUG RESISTANCE)
There are 4 groups of Horse Wormer:
BENZIMIDAZOL e.g. PANACUR - every 4 - 6 weeks
PYRANTEL e.g. STRONGID P/PYTATAPE P - every 6 weeks
IVERMECTIN e.g. EQVALAN - every 8-10 weeks
MOXIDECTIN e.g. EQUEST - every 13 weeks
JAN = GENERAL
FEB = 5 DAY DOUBLE DOSE PANACUR EQUINEGUARD
(young or high stocked) OR GENERAL
MAR = DOUBLE DOSE STRONGID OR EQUIMAX (Tapeworm)
APR = GENERAL
MAY = GENERAL
JUNE = GENERAL
JULY = GENERAL
AUG = GENERAL
SEPT = DOUBLE DOSE STRONGID OR EQUIMAX (Tapeworm)
OCT = 5 DAY DOUBLE DOSE EQUINEGUARD (all ages)
NOV = GENERAL
DEC = IVERMECTIN (Bot larvae) after the first frost
USE 5 DAY EQUINEGUARD FOLLOWED BY EQUIMAX ON DAY 6 FOR NEW HORSES BEFORE PUTTING OUT TO GRAZE
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