Strategic Worming Plan

We know that worming advice is complex and often contradictory, so we have designed a Strategic plan based on what we believe is current best practice. The cornerstones of our plan are to:

Avoid over worming our horses with chemicals they don’t need
Create a plan that monitors and treats high worm burdens as necessary
Provide our patients with best practice solutions for great preventative healthcare

We have designed our Strategic worming program with the following thoughts in mind:

Over worming has become such an issue that worms are now resistant to many commonly used wormers. So, our program is based around worm egg count testing. You only worm if your horse has a high worm burden.

It’s still important to worm over the winter with a wormer that targets small redworm that live in a horse’s guts over the colder months.
It’s important to target tapeworm strategically. So, our program treats tapeworm once a year in the winter. And, we also test for tapeworm with the Equisal Saliva test in the Spring / Summer months.
It needs to be affordable. So, our program will provide your horse with a free wormer if his worm egg count is too high.

How it works

Once you sign up to our Worming Plan, you will get a call from one of our Equine nurses who have trained as SQPs (Suitably Qualified Persons to deliver worming advice and dispense wormers) to discuss your horse’s individual yard circumstances and to help tailor a program that suits yourselves.

After this we send you a pack with a year’s supply of consumables. This will include your winter wormer, sample containers for the worm egg counts and tapeworm tests as well as gloves, plastic bags, submission forms and pre-paid envelopes. All you then need to do, is post back your horse’s faecal samples to our Freepost address at Somerford Park Farm at the correct strategic time of year. Between May and July you would send the Equisal saliva test to an external laboratory with the provided envelope.

Once we have analysed the samples, we will call you with the results. You will receive worming advice based on your own individual circumstances from one of our vets or nurses.

We have 3 worming plans depending on your individual needs. Please follow the link for more information or give us a call to discuss what will work for you and your horse(s). We also offer tailor made plans for large yards, just get in touch and our team will be happy to help.

The benefits of our scheme

Uses up to date knowledge of worming to provide an eco-friendly approach to worm control.
Uses less chemicals than fixed interval treatments and prevents your horse being given medicines he doesn’t need.
Provides evidence that your worming control is effective.
Identifies horses carrying strains of resistant worms.
Suitable for horses living individually or as part of small or large groups.

Worm egg counts

We use standard Macmaster lab tests to identify worm eggs within your horse’s droppings. This is the best method to detect large roundworm eggs. It doesn’t detect pinworms, tapeworms or small redworms. We ask you to send us your horse’s droppings to our lab and we will call you once the sample has been analysed.

Our plan will be tailored differently for everyone’s individual circumstances, but is based on the following yearly calendar template:

Month	Strategy	Target
November - January	Worm with Equest Pramox	Encysted small redworms and tapeworm
May	Worm egg count	Large roundworms
May - July	Equisal saliva test	Tapeworm
July	Worm egg count	Large roundworms
September	Worm egg count	Large roundworms

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Strategic Worming Plan

How it works

The benefits of our scheme

Worm egg counts

Month

Strategy

Target