Horse Worming

Successful Horse Worming
Not as easy as you might think

Parasites have become more and more resistant to horse wormers in recent years. This of course is a big problem for horse owners. There is also a lot of confusion as to what kind of dewormer you should use and how often.

Wormers are often given infrequently and in the wrong dosage. This will lead to more and more parasite resistance.

Sensible deworming practices will help to reduce worm resistance!

It is very important for the health of your horse to control the parasite burden. Worms can cause damage to the digestive system or they can cause colic.

How should you deworm your horse?

Because of the increased resistance of worms it is not adviseable anymore to use chemical horse wormers on a regular basis.

The best practice is to do a faecal egg count. You or your vet can then determine which horse needs which drug. Some horses are more susceptible to worms than others and some horses nearly seem to be resitant.

There is no point in stuffing chemicals with probably harmful side effects into these horses. Apart from that good chemical wormers are very expensive!

A faecal egg count has one drawback though:

You can´t rely on it 100%!

Eggs will only be in the manure if there is adult worms present. It won´t show anything if there is only larvae.

Also tapeworms and Small Red Worms are hardly detected in a faecal sample. But you can have a blood test done for these parasites.

Natural wormers as an alternative

You can also use natural wormers to control parasites. These are either herbal or homoeopathic.

Natural wormers create an enviornment in the digestive system that worms don´t like. They are a repellant and don´t kill the worms!

I prefer the natural horse wormers for my horses. They have less or no side effects and are very gentle on the horses metabolism.

You should as well do an egg count from time to time to be sure that everything is ok.

How to correctly use chemical dewormers and reduce the resistance of parasites:

• Determine the weight of your horse


• Use recommended amount of the product. Underdosing is one of the reasons for parasite resistance. Overdosing can do harm to your horse.


• Rotate wormers every year. Don´t just use a different brand. Make sure you are using a product that is in a different chemical family. Ivermectin and moxidectin are in the same chemical family.


• Do a faecal egg count from fresh manure (not older than 12 hours). Your vet can then recommend if and what kind of product you should use. This might even be cheaper that worming every 8 weeks!


• Poo-Pick! Remove droppings from pasture minimum twice a week to reduce reinfection.


• Use sheep and cows to "vacuum" larvae from your pasture. The larvae that will affect your horse won´t survive in cows and sheep.

Return from Horse Worming back to Health Care
Return to Holistic Hoof and Horsecare