This Blog is dedicated to your horse’s health and well-being.
Over a series of posts, I will attempt to explain the need to regularly test your horse for parasites and describe the successful fecal egg count testing and deworming program my wife has used to control internal parasite in over 30 horses for the past several years. Additionally, I hope the equine community uses this blog as a repository for recent studies and research relating to controlling parasites in horses.
You may be asking, why create a blog about testing horses for parasites and worms?
My wife and I live on a farm and care for over 30 horses along with several other assorted critters (but that could be a whole different blog).
Our animals health has always been a primary concern. So, the more we read about the benefits of parasite testing, the more interested we became in incorporating it into our horses’ routine health care program. We also wanted a better understanding of how well our parasite control (deworming) process was working.
Confused and Frustrated
However, our initial exposure to parasite testing was needlessly confusing. As we researched the subject, we found lots of contradictory advice and a multitude of different opinions on the best and most efficient way to test horses for parasites. Additionally, most of the material contained unfamiliar technical terms and referred to previous research that was unavailable to us at the time.
Further frustrating was a lot of the information we came across, was no longer valid due to updated techniques and more recent research findings.
I previously encountered a similar situation in a different industry and successfully developed and produced thousands of kits for a microbiological test used to identify bacteria.
So, I decided to write about my wife’s and my personal experience with creating a commercially available fecal egg count test kit and its use in our evidence-based deworming program for our barn’s 30+ horses. Sharing what we learned, what has worked, and most importantly, why it is critical to your horse’s health.
Another goal of this blog is to put all the testing and treatment information in one place to save you the time and effort currently required to research an effective parasite control program for your horse. Along the way, I also plan to share some tips and tricks that we learned the hard way, so you don’t have to.
No problem, if you’re not a veterinarian.
This blog will attempt to explain in non-technical terms which parasites are the most harmful, how to test for them, what to do if your horse has worms and the best ways to control them. Even though the blog will be non-technical, I hope to share the latest studies related to controlling parasites and perhaps feature some subject matter experts along the way.
Future topics will include posts on the best method to collect, store and ship your horse’s fecal sample, interpreting fecal egg count test results, deworming treatment methods and the growing concern with parasitic resistance to dewormers to name just a few.
Hopefully, this blog will become an on-going dialogue with each of you adding your experiences, expertise, and ideas to the conversation making it a better resource for us all.