Effective Worm Control for Horse Breeders
Broodmares and Foals Need Special Attention
Horse breeders are facing a very unique problem when it comes to worm control. Managing your horses' environment will require you to observe very specific time periods that you may let lapse between administering dewormers. By adhering to specific and controlled intervals, you will be able to decrease the number of eggs that the animal is releasing into its pasture, thus controlling the quantity of contaminants it will pick up again.
But more important than managing the intervals is to know whether or not the worming program that you use, is actually the right treatment for your horses. When using
a "standard" dewormer without testing the effectiveness, you run the risk of selective worm breeding. When the dewormer kills all the sensitive adult sexually active worms
in a population it causes the resistant worms to only have other resistant worms to mate with. Once the ineffectiveness of the dewormer reaches a certain point, it will be useless
in that herd of horses. That population of worms will never become sensitive to that dewormer again. As horses come and go from that herd they will pick up this resistant strain
of worms and will contaminate the pastures and paddocks of the next farm or ranch they go to with worms that are resistant to that dewormer.
Read more about Selective Breeding.
How Equine Fecal Egg Count Helps
This scenario occurs especially in breeding farms, therefore, each horse breeder needs to develop a plan to slow the spread of resistance by only using deworming when needed. Breeders also need to know which dewormers are still effective in their herds so they are not sending horses to other farm with the false confidence they have dewormed their horses, when in reality the medication did not work due to the fact that worm population has become resistant to that dewormer.
By using Horsemen's Laboratory's Equine Fecal Egg Count Testing Kit you will be able to determine the types of parasites (if any) have infected your horses. We will also provide a suggested treatment for those specific parasites, enabling you not only to enhance the health and performance of your horses, but also control their environment. It will also ensure that you are only deworming your horses when it is necessary and for worms that are harmful to your horses.
By testing your horses before and after the deworming program to make sure that your horse's worm control program has the right effect, Horsemen's Laboratory can issue a "Worm Free Certificate" for your horse upon request.
