26/05/2024
Drenching your horses appropriately is VERY important. Resistance to medications is rising! If you have questions or concerns definitely get help from the experts and your veterinarian!
Here’s Marmaduke keeping nice and toasty in his PJ’s the last week or so!
It’s certainly become chilly as we get close to the official start of Winter.
Thank you so much for all my clients continued support - this autumn has been the busiest period for Worm Watch yet!
Winter is a time where you really have to think about whether or not drenching is appropriate - as parasites become less reproductively active when the environment is colder (very true in cold Canterbury winters) & drenching when it isn’t so necessary in some individuals can lead to increased selection pressure for drench resistance in parasite populations.
As always, there are so many things to take into account - shedder status, recent drench treatments, what drench families have been used, age of the horses, management of the paddocks … all that background information is really important in making decisions for drenching your horses.
Worm Watch is there to guide you in decision making.
☑️ Use Faecal Egg Counts
☑️ Identify Individual Shedder Status
☑️ Plan Targeted Drench Treatments
🟰 SLOW DRENCH RESISTANCE
I have continued to see suspected and confirmed resistance in a number of horses in Canterbury - probably not unsurprisingly this has most frequently been seen in ex-racehorses (Tbs and SBs).
It is several months away now, but if you haven’t thought about confirming shedder status and adding routine FEC to management of your horses - spring will be the time to do so! Plenty of time to plan ahead 🙂
Get in contact with me, Emily, if you have any questions or require the submission form to include with samples.