Parasite control in horses has evolved over recent years to combat increasing drug resistance. Old recommendations suggested deworming every two months, but blind use of anti-parasitics has led to the resistance that we see today. To fight this, we now recommend just once or twice a year and annual fecal floats to evaluate the success of a treatment program. At our practice, we typically deworm twice a year, once with QuestPlus and once with regular Ivermectin. Annual fecal floats are important to do to evaluate the efficacy of the drugs we use.
The second way we have been fighting resistance is actually by allowing a very small number or common parasites to exist. Any grazing horse will inevitably have some level of parasite burden, and by not always deworming them, we allow for a more susceptible population to persist, we decrease the number of resistant parasites found in your horse’s GI tract, which means that when they have a higher parasite burden, the dewormers we have will be effective against them.
Internal Parasite Control And Your Horse
Internal parasite control is an important part of equine healthcare. Parasitism from Large Strongyles was once a leading cause of acute severe colic in horses. Internal parasites can cause a number of health problems in horses ranging from mild to severe. They can lead to the malabsorption of protein and micro nutrients from the bowel and lead to decreased resistance to secondary diseases. Severe parasitism can lead to permanent damage to the bowel in some cases.
When outward signs of parasitism exist they may include:
There are over 150 species of internal parasites that can infect horses. The most commonly associated parasites include:
Rotational Deworming Routine:
Continuous Deworming Routine:
