Mal’s Equine Worm Egg Counts

13/08/2024

Part 5 of Myth Busting ☺️❤️🐴

07/08/2024

Myth busting - Part 4 🐴💩🪱

03/08/2024

Worming Record Keeping 📝
I’ve put together 2 different documents for record keeping to help keep track of important worming information and results.

Unfortunately I can’t upload pdf documents to my business page 🤦‍♀️ so have posted images, which are totally printable. If you’d like the digital document then get in touch with me and I can email it to you 📧

The first document is a single page for each individual horse and is quite detailed. It’s the one I use for each individual in my own herd. The second is for multiple horses on your property.

Pick whichever suits your needs best ☺️🐴

30/07/2024

More MYTHS ✨🦄✨
Part 3

27/07/2024

MYTH Busting! - Part 2

22/07/2024

It’s the small things like the time some people take on beautiful and fun labelling of their samples 🐴❤️
It always puts a smile on my face when I’m greeted by them ☺️

21/07/2024

MYTH BUSTING 🦄✨

I’ve been working on a series of common myths and beliefs that are still around to this day!! I’ll only release 2 or 3 each week so it’s not information overload 📚

I hope you get a lot out of these 🐴💩🪱
Don’t hesitate to comment or private message me with questions or queries ☺️

15/07/2024

Got a weird &/or wonderful wormy question?

I’m looking for educational post inspiration so comment below with your questions or topics that you’d like to hear and learn more about. Or private message me if you’re too shy to post a comment. No comment or question is silly at all if you learn from it ☺️

I enjoy making up these educational posts but I want to make sure I’m answering all your burning questions. 🐴💩🪱

10/07/2024

03/07/2024

Why do horses in the same paddock have different worm egg counts??

One question that I am asked a lot, and many clients struggle to understand, is how horses in the same paddock under the same management conditions can have such variation in the FEC results.

So, I am going to do my best to explain why in this post.

Imagine this… We have a herd of 10 horses, with no new horses coming or going. They all live in the same paddock, and we are committed to worm control. We regularly poo pick the paddock, there are no other horses nearby and the poo from the poo picking is taken far away from the paddock.

The horses regularly have worm egg counts every 2-3 months throughout the year. Here is their typical results:

Sunny 0, George 50, Sam 150, Max 0, Rudi 650, Colin 50, Red 0, Coco 0, Stanley 900, Milo 0.

The numbers mean eggs per gram (epg). Anything below 200epg is considered low, 200-500epg is medium, and over 500epg would be high.

We want to know why Rudi and Stanley have high worm egg counts when the rest of the field don't, despite the hard work of poo picking 2-3 nights a week.

The answer is in the 80:20 rule! We know that only 20% of the horses in a well-managed herd will contribute to 80% of the worm burden in the paddock. But what does that mean?

Looking at the diagram/picture… there are 10 horses in the paddock, and the orange things inside their belly are worms. As you can see, only 2 out of the 10 horses have a high level of worms (circled in red). These 2 horses will be pooping the highest amount of worm eggs onto the paddock. But why only these 2 horses?

It just comes down to individual susceptibility and immunity to the worms. Assuming we don't have young or old horses or horses with any kind of immune compromising disease (such as Cushing's) there will always be some horses that are just more likely to have worms than others.

We want to identify these high shedding horses before they contaminate the paddocks too much and this is where the worm egg counting becomes really valuable - it helps us to identify the high shedders in the paddock so we can treat only those horses with wormers.

This means on well managed herd only 20% of the horses will need to be wormed.

Despite the best management these high shedding horses regularly come back with high counts - that is just unfortunate and comes down to individual susceptibility. Other times we manage to reduce those worm burdens and keep them down long term. But the only way to know for sure is to check - every 2-3 months.

In summary, worm egg counts are the best way to manage worming in your horse. Only 1 in 5 horses will likely need to be wormed.

Reference: www.ridingsequinevets.co.uk

25/06/2024

A common question I get asked ☺️

21/06/2024

My 7 year old son has been busting to see what I’ve been looking at down the microscope so much lately.

I love that he’s showing interest in science 🥼🔬

14/06/2024

CAUTION!!
Be especially careful when using Ivermectin which is toxic to dogs and particularly is not well tolerated by Collies, Old English Sheep Dogs and their related breeds and crosses.

All worming drugs are essentially poisons. Most are dangerous to aquatic life and will have a negative effect on dung beetles and other microorganisms. To prevent contamination simply bring the horse onto a surfaced area to administer the wormer, then it can be easily cleaned off if a slip happens or the horse spits out some wormer. Dispose of packaging carefully and preferably in a bin with a lid.

09/06/2024

What an amazing day participating in the Nav Ride!!
Perfect weather, great company, awesome horses!
Thanks to the organisers for a terrific event!

07/06/2024

SIGNS & SYMPTOMS of worms in our horses 🐴🪱

I've prepared a short video for those interested in learning more on this topic. You might have to pause it in places to be able to read it all. I hope you find it helpful...

The symptoms of a parasite infection can vary depending on the type of worm involved and the number of worms infecting the horse. Many parasite infections will have no symptoms when the parasite burden is low, but a high number of worms can cause symptoms and seriously affect the horse’s health.

04/06/2024

NAV RIDERS - For Sunday 9th of June 📣

I’m so excited to be at the 27th Annual Navigation Ride organised by Northern Adult Riding Club!

I will be having a display there once I finish riding on the Nav Ride myself, so come and find me and ask all your weird and wonderful wormy questions or even leave a sample with me to be tested. I’ll be bring everything you need to collect a sample on the day🐴💩🪱

It is going to be an amazingly fun day! What more do you need…. Horses, friends, sunshine, nature and prizes ☀️🌲🐴⛰️☺️

31/05/2024

AMAZING NEWS 📰
Both Devonport & Launceston Saddleworlds are drop off points for your FEC, faecal worm egg count, samples 🥳

The wonderful and friendly teams at both Saddleworlds have set up a drop off fridge in each store so you can leave your samples there.

For Devonport Saddleworld…
Please drop off samples by lunchtime on TUESDAYS so they can catch a ride with the courier 🚙💨

Message me for more information ℹ️
Follow my page for more educational posts ☺️

29/05/2024

Did you know that I’m a local Tassie girl?
I even grew up right here in Tassie,
I’m based in Northern Tassie,
& I’ve been a horse lover since I was a little girl.

I’m just a Tassie girl having a crack at starting her own small business doing FECs, or faecal worm egg counts, mainly on horses but can do other livestock also.

Your support in my local small business to get this crazy idea off the ground would mean the world to me ☺️

Tasmania 7268, Australia

26/05/2024

Part 3 of 3 ☺️🪱🐴💩

23/05/2024

Part 2 of 3 ☺️🪱🐴

21/05/2024

Part 1 of 3 😉

16/05/2024

To move or not to move? That is the question 🤔

Should I move my horse after worming?
Stable them, but how long for?
Put them back in the same field?
Or move them straight to clean fresh grazing?
There are a couple of considerations to take into account and the preferred course of action might just surprise you!

The reasons to manage horses carefully after worming are two fold – most obviously to optimise parasite control for your horse and to help slow down wormer resistance, but also to minimise the effect of the strong chemicals in the environment.

Check out the below images for more info ☺️🐴🪱

15/05/2024

WORMER RESISTANCE 💪🪱
I've talked a bit about resistance to wormers because, just like with antibiotics, our wormers are becoming less effective. Worms are developing resistance to the chemicals we have available to treat them and growing numbers are no longer susceptible. This is extremely worrying because without effective treatment our horses are at risk of serious parasitic disease.

How does wormer resistance happen?
The more we use these drugs and expose the worms to the chemicals, the more quickly resistance develops. So, this is a very serious threat to our horses. But neither is it enough to simply widen the gap between treatments. At around 4-6 weeks from egg to adult, the lifecycle of the small redworm, is one of the quickest which means that a brewing parasite challenge can quickly get out of hand.

Instead, we need to be turning to targeted control, using worm egg counts every 8-12 weeks and other diagnostic tools wherever possible to reduce the frequency of chemical doses. This will go a long way to helping to prolong the life of our wormers.

07/05/2024

FEC SAMPLE DROP OFF POINT - Launceston Saddleworld

The amazing team at Launceston Saddleworld are providing their store as drop off point for your samples ☺️

There is a sample fridge set up in the feed area of the store with my Logo on the front. Just leave your samples in there with your paperwork, do an online payment and let me know they are there.

More ‘Submission’ forms are right next the fridge, or you can find it on my page in the featured posts.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions 🪱

05/05/2024

I am so excited to be sponsoring the 27th Annual Navigation Ride organised by Northern Adult Riding Club 🥳 Program Below… 😉

It is going to be an amazingly fun day! What more do you need…. Horses, friends, sunshine, nature and prizes ☀️🌲🐴⛰️☺️

I will be having a display there after I finish the Nav Ride so come and find me with all your weird and wonderful wormy questions or leave a sample with me to be checked 🐴💩🪱

29/04/2024

What is the point of doing a Faecal Egg Count?

1. To determine if your horse even needs worming and what their worm burden is

2. To check the effectiveness of your wormer & worming program

3. Identify high shedders which may be contaminating pasture and treat accordingly

4. Decrease use of wormers and help lower costs

5. Help combat resistance to the current wormers available

11/04/2024

What you might come across in the manure pile in the paddock after worm treatment this Autumn 🍂