WECs are not useful over winter months as the small redworm encyst in the gut wall inside the horse and are therefore not producing eggs detectable in the poo. 80% of horses do not need worming during the Spring and Summer months. To avoid the spread of resistance we strongly recommend the use of WECs to detect which horses actually need worming. Please contact us for specific advice from one of our vets about worm management in youngsters. They are also at risk of disease caused by Parascaris equorum (ascarids grow up to 10cm long) which require specific treatment. Youngsters (less than 18 months) are more at risk of high worm burdens as their immunity has not developed fully yet, so we need to be more careful with this age group. Resistance to cyathostomins (small redworm) has been reported in all types of wormers.

This issue is important if you just keep one horse or are on a big livery yard. Over time, there is significant risk that this resistant population will build up and result in wide-spread wormer resistance across the UK.

Thus, when the wormer is used, the sensitive ones are killed and resistant ones left behind to multiply on your fields.

Resistance is promoted every time a wormer is used, as some of the worms in a horse are likely to be naturally resistant to the wormer. Resistance to equine wormers is a problem that affects us all and is likely to become an ever more serious issue in the future.

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