If you’ve heard the term wormer resistance and you’re wondering what all the fuss is about this is the post for you! (Read on friend, read on!)
WHAT IS WORMER RESISTANCE?
Wormer resistance is basically, horse worms no longer being killed by the drugs in many dewormers! Because they have “got used” to the drug and evolved over a period of time and now the wormers aren’t always effective!
HOW DID WORMS BECOME RESISTANT TO DEWORMERS?
So we used to as horse owners do a worming program that meant throughout the year, we would give certain drugs in the form of wormers to our horses to treat their worm infestations.
The trouble with this practice is that we were giving drugs to horses who didn’t need them, and in such quantities, it allowed the worms to evolve so that the drug was no longer able to kill them.
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE AS A HORSE OWNER ABOUT RESISTANCE?
Worms can cause major health issues to horses and even lead to death. As resistance grows to the drugs we have on the market, and no new drugs are available to treat worms this means that we must be careful with saving the treatments we have so we don’t contribute to the rise in resistance.
THE BIG PROBLEM WITH WORMERS AND WORM TESTING
The biggest problem is that cheap wormers on the market, mean many owners are choosing to save money by just opting for a wormer instead of checking that their horse needs the wormer in the first place.
This irresponsible behaviour is CATASTROPHIC for the future of all horses!
Without these medicines, we cannot treat the high worm burdens!
It will lead to thousands of equine deaths that could have been prevented. (See the story of this mare with tapeworm who had to be put to sleep because the tapeworm had become resistant to the drug).
As horse owners, we need to care about our horses more than we care about saving money!
And vow to not treat for worms unless we have had a positive test!
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
Unfortunately, we can’t turn back the clock, but we can make sure we are saving the medicines we have and only using them if we absolutely have to.
The other thing we can do is work to break the worm lifecycles! The best way to do this is good paddock maintenance and poo-picking!
EVERY TIME a horse is given a wormer, RESISTANCE to that wormer INCREASES.
This is why I’m so against the use of Equest and Equest Pramox apart from during the winter months (when we MUST treat against Inhibited Encysted Small Redworm and Bots).
Moxidectin (the main ingredient of Equest) is still effective. So far, thankfully, there’s no known resistance to it. So we need to preserve moxidectin for use during the WINTER MONTHS.
People sometimes tell me they use Equest or Equest Pramox throughout the year.
The reason is often that “The tack shop recommended it”.
And this just drives me insane!!
Why use a drug that there is no need to use apart from in winter?!
There is over 90% (90-95%) resistance to Panacur Guard for the treatment of Inhibited Encysted Small Redworm.
So this isn’t a viable option for the important winter treatment.
There is a blood test available now (to test for IESR) but it does have its limitations.
The horse has to have had consistent results of less than 50 eggs per gram throughout the year (which is rare). Otherwise, the test doesn’t show a true result.
Why can’t we just worm regularly?
Over-worming causes huge resistance to drugs.
Worms can cause horrendous damage, illness and even death in horses.
Every time I hear of a horse that had to be put to sleep due to an infestation my heart breaks a little bit more.
More often than not, it could have been avoided by them being on a targeted testing and worming program.
If we carry on the way we’re going, we’ll end up with no effective drugs to treat our beloved equines.
And nobody wants to see that happen.
To Summarise We as Good horse Owners…
We Must STOP treating for the sake of it.
TEST and only treat if needed.
ONLY use the correct drugs for the burden.
Follow worming programmes for EVERY single one of our horses.
By being on a targeted programme, you’ll test for specific worms at the right time of year. And only treat if necessary.
HOW DOES A TARGETED WORMING PROGRAM WORK?
This is how our program works. Between March and November, we test every 10 weeks for Redworm (Strongyles) and Roundworm (Ascarids), that’s about 4 tests. Then we test in the Spring and Autumn for tapeworm, We then worm over winter for inhibited and encysted Redworm (Stongyles).
But you don’t have to worry about remembering all that, our Annual Subscription has you covered! All you need to do is sign up and we send your tests when you are due.
The EFECS programme and Subscription come with my always up-to-date expert knowledge, advice and guidance as standard.
Be part of the solution, not the problem!
