EFEC Nutrition

07/01/2025

🐑 As we welcome our first set of Valais blacknose twins in 2025 I thought I would share an interesting parasite fact about sheep during pregnancy.

Adult ewes will go through a stage of relaxation in immunity around the time of lambing. This means that the parasite egg output from these ewes will also increase.

This occurs around 2-4 weeks before lambing and can last from 6-8 weeks. This period of high egg shedding can be a risk to these pregnant ewes and in particular, the young lambs. 🪱

06/01/2025

It’s been a busy snowy afternoon at EFEC HQ with our first Valais ewe giving us two beautiful ram lambs 🐑

01/01/2025

New Year Offer ✨

To help start off 2025 we are offering a special discount on the EFEC year bundles.
Make your parasite control programme easy with a free reminder service and qualified advice tailored to suit your individual yard/ equine. 🔬

🪱 Receive a year worth of kits
🪱 Reminder service on when and what testing is best advised
🪱 Qualified and tailored advice to suit your yard/ equine
🪱 RAMA/SQP qualified advice and anthelmintic prescriptions

Two year bundles available:
1) FEC Bundle - x4 Faecal egg counts (Was £35.00, Now £32.00)
2) FEC & Equisal - x4 Faecal egg counts & x2 Equisal Kits (£75.00, Now £72.00)

Limited time only.

27/12/2024

🪱 Encysted Small Redworm- What is it and how do I protect my horse?

The encysted stage of the small Redworm (cyathostomins).
As temperatures consistently drop below 6 degrees Celsius, L3 of the small Redworm lifecycle will become Encysted by burrowing into the gut wall of the large intestine.
In this state they lay dormant and can remain Encysted for months or years. When conditions are optimal such as the change of seasons, they will mass emerge at once from the gut wall. This can lead to mild symptoms such as weight loss to life threatening conditions including bowel inflammation known as larval cyathostominosis

So how can you protect your horse? 🧐
We can perform a risk assessment to identify what level of risk your horse is at - www.whatsyourwormrisk.com
🩸If your horse is classified as a low risk, they are eligible for Encysted small Redworm blood tests (contact your vet for more information)
💉Medium to high risk animals should be proactively treated with Moxidectin or Fendendazole chemicals

Now’s the time to consider your action against Encysted small Redworm,
Contact me directly for more information

24/12/2024

🎄 Merry Christmas Everyone 🎄

Thank you to everyone that has supported my small business making it our busiest year of testing yet 🔬

Have a wonderful Christmas with all your wonderful horses, ponies and donkeys

21/12/2024

📮 Take note of you are planning to send Equisal samples

Please don’t send your samples now until the new year 🎄🎉

Royal Mail will be holding them at the local depot until we return on 2nd January

18/12/2024

🪱 Winter Parasite Control

It’s time to consider encysted small redworm risk in our horses.
You can check your horses parasite risk level through www.whatsyourwormrisk.com

So what are the options? 🧐

🩸Horses at low risk of parasite infection are recommended to get the blood test for encysted small redworm completed by your vet and sent off to Austin Davis Biologist
💉 Horses at a moderate and high risk of infection are recommended to be treated with a Moxidectin or Fenbendazole product.

For more information get in touch via messenger r or email.

19/11/2024

Management and monitoring tools are essential for good equine parasite control 🪱

We ultimately want to reduce the risk of wormer resistance developing and make sure our horses are at optimal health 🩺

To help equine owners understand their horses risk of parasite infection a handy calculator tool has been developed by the team at Austin Davis Biologics Ltd

https://www.whatsyourwormrisk.com

14/11/2024

🪱 New Regulations 🐴

Due to changes in the Veterinary Medicines Regulations there is some additional information required to be recorded before a suitable anthelmintic can be advised.

Don’t worry though to help make this process easy, once initial results have been sent we will share a link to an online form for you to complete so we can gather all the information needed. 📱

01/11/2024

🍂 It’s not too late to complete your autumn parasite control🪱

It is recommended to complete a worm egg count and Equisal tapeworm test now.

Treating for encysted small redworm is recommend to be done after the first frost ❄️ Due to our changing climate this rule doesn’t necessarily apply, instead we need to wait until temperatures are below 6 degrees Celsius for over 10 days consistently.

Don’t forget there is now an encysted small redworm blood test for horses at low risk. Send a message to find out more information that suits your horses.

22/10/2024

🪱 It’s really important we look at how we currently view management of our horses and consider ways we can change to help improve health and welfare

New guidelines on equine worm control have been launched – with the warning: “If horse owners don’t make these changes now, it will be too late.” Cross-sector group CANTER (Controlling Antiparasitic resistance in Equines Responsibly), has published a “crucial” document setting out key pr...

15/10/2024

Are you from ROI and looking to purchase EquiSal Tapeworm tests? 🤔

Unfortunately we can’t supply EquiSal tests to customers in ROI but the Irish Equine Centre are official stockists.

Autumn is tapeworm testing time for horses - the IEC has EquiSal kits in stock

15/10/2024

Do you have an equine business?

This unique event is designed to support equine business owners. I’m looking forward to presenting at it covering advances in equine parasites 🪱

If you run a yard, riding school, breeding operation or offer advisory services to equine professionals, this event is tailored for you!

06/10/2024

What a fantastic weekend 🪱🔬🐴
I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of tests received from our drop off box at the Dressage at Home and international camp with nearly 50 horses tested so far.

To top the weekend off I got a break from testing to go down the centre line with Callie taking home 1st in prelim and 5th in novice 🎖️

Lots of results will be send out over tonight and tomorrow evening.

04/10/2024

Thank you Emma at dressageathome for having me out to talk about sustainable worming approaches and helping to educate the campers on anthelmintic resistance 🪱 Lots of great questions ask!

I have a special offer on all weekend, our drop box will be available in the barn stables. If your at Castle Irvine Necarne on Sunday for the gala show the drop box and offer for £5 per worm egg count will be available for all show attendees. 🐴

03/10/2024

🪱 Fantastic news to be able to share the release of the CANTER guidelines

We are delighted to announce the launch of today! UK’s first cross-sector guidelines for equine worm control 👊🏻
These guidelines cover how to
1. Carry out a risk-based approach to estimate potential spread of worm infection.
2. Carry out the best pasture and management to reduce infection from the environment and help break worm life cycles.
3. Use tests such as worm egg counts and antibody tests to determine whether horses need worming based on egg shedding or worm burden level

Each guideline chapter is available separately on the CANTER website so you can access the information you need quickly 👇🏼

https://canterforhorses.org.uk/canter-rolls-out-first-cross-sector-guidelines-for-prescribers-on-equine-worm-control/