Types of Horse Parasites

Despite common knowledge, internal parasites could definitely kill farm pets. These doesn’t exclude horses. While they may be out of sight, they are doing intensive damage internally. At the very least, parasites can rob nutrients from your horse and result in gastrointestinal irritation. Your veterinarian will tell you that they can cause severe disorders like intestinal ruptures, colic and even death. Be sure to provide your horse with these three things – clean water, good de-worming program and high quality feed. Did you realize that there are more than 150 parasites that infest horses?

The large bloodworms or stronglyes include pinwords, threadworms, lungworms, ascarids, bots and tapeworms. Typically, these species could lay more than 200, 000 eggs day by day. The thing with all these parasites is that they may all be found in your horse all at once, just in different lifecycle stages. So yes, while your horse may appear healthy and happy, you don’t know what is occurring inside. These silent killers can affect tissues and vital organs, major blood vessels, cause obstructions and ulcerations in the digestive tract. Pinworms are well known for inducing intense anal itching on horses. Warning signs of parasitic presence are rough coat, weight loss, depression, colic, tall rubbing, nasal discharge and loss of appetite. The best initial intervention is to seek the advice of your vet. Will there be presence of worms in the manure? The answer is no, you won’t, but the eggs will be apparent to the Veterinarian under a microscope.

Diagnosing the type of parasite is extremely important and only your vet can confirm their types and presence. It will inform them what de-worming process would best suit your horse. The microscope test, including a good deworming program, can keep your horse protected from further hazards of parasitic growth. Deworming can be done in four ways – via oral paste syringe, nasogastric tube, oral liquid syringe or feed additive. Many horses can sense if something is being included on their feeds so if you can work with the first two methods, the simpler your life will be. Nasogastric tubes are best left for a Vet to give wormer.

Nasogastric tubes are best left for a Vet to give wormer. Be sure you give the right dose and at the proper time – commonly every 6 to 8 weeks. (foals will differ, check your wormer labels). All three procedures are effective. Offering the product at the appropriate dose and time is the key to a successful de-worming. To make sure they do swallow the dose, you can do 1 of 2 things. Place your thumbs into either side of their mouth to make them open their mouth and swallow the paste or liquid they were holding in their mouth, or put your hand under their chin and tip their head up so they must swallow.

Always bear in mind that the best worming schedule will have to be talked over with the vet. The requirements of the herd may differ if you have all ages and stages of equines from foals to old campaigners.

As a licensed animal medical practitioner, Gil Dunes has been using the ideal veterinary management in her practice. Within her expertise is the increased of veterinary advantage using BusinessInfusions when providing the best equine care.