Horse Parasites

All domestic pet owners will eventually have to deal with health issues that affect their animal's well being, so those who own horses will no doubt discover themselves up against horse parasites at some point in time. For those who are perhaps encountering the problem for the first time, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Horse parasites are categorized as either internal or external parasites.

Internal Parasites

Keeping your horse free from worms

Worms are an internal horse parasite where each generation needs to spend a part of its lifecycle back in the environment outside a host body to accomplish some essential developmental stage or change. For this reason this particular variety of horse parasite is quite easy to spread. The eggs are passed through faeces, where they develop into larvae that can climb the grasses and such that are eaten, infecting any animal who consumes them. Other species of worms shed eggs that can be consumed and eaten when grazing next to piles of faeces. Because domesticate horses spend their time in enclosed pastures where they are regularly in close proximity to other animals, this means that eradicating them completely from your animal is almost impossible.

Be aware that your animal might have one or two of these internal horse parasites at any given time with no ill effects. It is not until the levels of these horse parasites increase to critical levels that they can be the cause of serious damage, or even be fatal. Luckily for the owner, most of these species of horse parasites can be controlled with the administration of horse wormers by you or your veterinarian. In years past horse wormers were only given when owners noticed the symptoms of horse parasite infestation. Today, horse wormers are administered more in conjunction with preventative programs.

Most horse wormers are formulated to kill the larvae and adults. This controls the infestation because the larvae can't develop into the adults that produce the eggs that are shed out into the horse's environment. To help insure that the horse parasites do not become resistant, a variety of horse wormer drug classes or mixtures should be routinely used up to six times per year to provide a broader control of the different species of horse parasites.

Besides the administration of horse wormers to your animal, other ways to help control horse parasites are to pick up as much manure as possible especially from small enclosures. Where ever possible, the manure should be composted and used on fields that will not be used for grazing. If it's not possible to pick up manure due to the pasture size, pastures be rotated regularly, and moving cattle or sheep into the fields after horses (as these animals are apparently not affected by horse parasites) will keep infestations in check. Also you should try to keep water fresh and free of contamination.

The British Horse Society have some great free Horse Welfare leaflets - click here to view the leaflet on Horse Worm Control

If your horse has health problems and you would like some advice on the options available to you please complete our Contact Form so we can discuss your specific requirements