Frequently Asked Questions

Every month we will update these questions with a sample of the questions, you have asked,  and answers that we have supplied during the month.

How can I improve the health and performance of my horse?

How can I detect pasture contamination?

How can I reduce worm related colic?

How do I know if my horse has resistant worms?

How can I reduce the spread of worm resistance?

What is wrong with my current worming program?

How can I help the environment?

My vet has designed my programme, what is wrong with that?

If you have  a question that you would like answering then please submit it to our consultants.


How can I improve the health and performance of my horse?

If you do not know the worm burden that your horse is carrying then a large percentage of food that he eats could be feeding his parasites and therefore he will be under nourished. 

Worming products are chemicals that are licensed by the pharmaceutical society and only trained and qualified people can issue them.  This means that they are not the same as supplements that you can buy off the shelf at your feed merchants.  Why would you give your horse a controlled chemical regularly every 6 – 13 weeks without knowing that he  required them?

Through Intelligent Worming you can identify which worms your horse has and give him the chemicals that he needs, when he needs them in order to eliminate the worm burden.  If he doesn’t have any worms then you do not need to give him chemicals, but will monitor him instead through worm egg counts.

How can I detect pasture contamination?

Do you know if the field your horse grazes is infested with worm larvae or not?  It makes a huge difference to how and when you should be worming him.  With Intelligent Worming we can identify which paddocks have worm larvae in them and can create a flexible worming program that provides increased protection when the horses graze in these fields.  However a different approach can be applied when grazing clean pasture. 


How can I reduce worm related colic?

Many owners stop giving wormers because their horse has a mild colic reaction to the wormers.  With certain chemical wormers this is a sign that the horse actually has a large worm burden.  The correct course of action would be to either use other chemicals that can reduce the worm burden in a controlled manner and reduce the risk of colic, or to send a blood sample to Liverpool University to test for the level of tapeworm infection.  In both of these cases the likely outcome of stopping worming could be a fatal colic attack.

Intelligent Worming will work with your vets and Liverpool University to ensure that the correct course of action is identified in order to maintain the health of your horse.


How do I know if my horse has resistant worms?

A large proportion of worms carried by horses are resistant to a chemical called benzimidazole.  In a group of six horses four could have non-resistant worms but two could carry the resistant strain.  Intelligent worming will identify the horses that have the resistant worms, treat them with the correct chemicals and monitor the other horses to ensure that the resistant worms do not spread and infect all of them.


How can I reduce the spread of worm resistance?

Worms have become resistant to the benzimidazole chemical because it has been used repeatedly every 6 – 8 weeks with no regard to the level of worms carried by the horse.  Many people also under dose their horse to get away with one syringe and this contributes to the spread of resistance.

This will happen again if people continue to use the ivermectin and moxidectin wormers on the same rotational programme………………it is only a matter of time.

Intelligent worming can prevent this occurring by ensuring that the correct dose of the correct chemical is given only to the horses that actually need it.  Where chemicals are needed on an ongoing basis Intelligent Worming will ensure that the brands are rotated to ensure the correct chemical rotation.

EXAMPLE OF AN INCORRECT ANNUAL ROTATION:

 EQVALAN / EQUEST / EQUIMAX

THESE ARE ALL FROM THE SAME CHEMICAL GROUP

 

 

What is wrong with my current worming programme?

Many horse owners have owned their horse for a number of years and wormed them regularly every 6 – 13 weeks for all of this time.  However, the horse can have a very large worm burden and has just learnt to live with it. 

There are many examples of this in the horses that are now on Intelligent Worming programs and whose worm levels are falling.

You may also be worming your horse when he has no worms anyway.

How can I help the environment?


If your horse is continually carrying chemical wormers in his system then every pile of dung is putting chemicals into the grass. 

The environmental impact of this will not be known and cannot be estimated for many years. 

Intelligent Worming reduces the chemicals carried by the horse and therefore reduces the potential environmental time bomb.


My vet has designed my programme, what is wrong with that?

Most vets have standard chemical programs that they issue to their clients.  The program that your vet has given you is only specific to your individual requirements if it includes worm counts and a risk assessment for each horse.