20% of a herd sheds 80% of the eggs…😳 Know your herd.

Test before and after you treat.  Why?  Treating your horse with a dewormer may not always be necessary and worse it may not work.

The two major parasites Parasight System fecal egg counts test for are strongyles and ascarids, both of which now exhibit significant levels of dewormer resistance.  In fact, every farm has some level of dewormer resistance.  Knowing your herd will help you and your veterinarian develop a strategic deworming protocol.

Unnecessary deworming further contributes to rising levels of drug resistance. Collectively, we as an industry created this problem – no one knew the ramifications of rotational and prophylactic deworming until drug resistance was already widespread. To add to the bad news, there are no new drug classes on the market to help address drug resistance.

What’s a horse owner to do? It’s simple. Test more, treat less. Routine fecal egg counts (FECs) and fecal egg count reduction tests (FECRTs) are an essential part of your horse’s program. This simple test determines if deworming is necessary and aids your veterinarian is selecting the appropriate dewormer(s) to be used.  

The latest parasite control guidelines from the American Association of Equine Practitioners provide an updated approach controlling and managing parasites on your farm, and these have been recently updated.  This update reports striking data on the efficacy status of equine dewormers globally. We’ll discuss specific dewormer resistance in more detail in our next post. #testmoretreatless #parasightsystem