REASONS TO TEST

• Support sustainable deworming

Protect the health of your animals and pastures for years to come. Evidence-based worming programs that use reliable worm egg counts to reduce the number of worming treatments keeps dewormers functioning for longer, so we can meet the health and well-being needs of current and future horses.

• Avoid misguided deworming expense

Even a cheap horse wormer is expensive if it doesn't work. Use precision worm egg counts to guide your deworming program.  It is more cost effective in the long-run. If testing reveals that the worm egg count level is low, you don’t need to treat. 

• Minimise the risk of parasite infection and disease

There is no better diagnostic tool for protecting your horse from worms capable of causing serious disease and associated suffering. Use our worm egg count tests to make sure worm levels are not high enough to produce symptoms such as colic, diarrhoea and weight loss.

• Be confident that your worm control programs are working

In the age-of dewormer resistance we cannot assume worming medications will always kill the worms.  Avoid a false sense of security.  Use our worm egg count tests and proof you can see to know if what you are doing is working.

• Find out if your wormer killed the worms

It is impossible to effectively deworm your horse without checking that your dewormer killed the worms. Some horse wormers that work against ascarids don’t work against strongyles and vice versa. Our tests tell you if your treatments successfully treated the egg laying ascarids and strongyles in your horse. There is no other way to know for sure!

• Protect your horse from the development of worms resistant to existing dewormers

Protect your horses from the development of worms that no longer respond to the treatments used to kill them. A well-executed worm egg count based deworming program slows the spread of resistance. The more worms you kill in one deworming on the property, the faster resistance will develop. Once resistance occurs on a horse property, it’s too late; it cannot be reversed.

• Align deworming with your horse’s natural immunity

Only give horses the treatments that they need. Our worm egg count tests determine your horses’ strongyle egg shedding levels - low, moderate, or high so you can selectively deworm your horses. A horse with consistently high egg shedding levels reinfects the horse, infects pasture-mates and requires more worming treatment.

• Establish an individual program for mature horses

The most effective deworming strategies are customised for individual horses, specific situations and particular worms. Without testing there is no strategy. Find out the types of worms in your horse, when to worm, and what horse wormers work on your property to deliver meaningful worm control. Give each horse the worm control attention they need and deserve.

• Keep horse-babies safe

Young horses are particularly susceptible to lethal parasite infection and more at risk for developing disease. Worm egg counts used alongside correctly timed, test, treat and check worm control steps, help you choose the right wormer for the parasites present to keep your young horse safe.

• Make informed treatment choices

Worm egg count evidence increases your chance of worming success. Outdated rotational regular-interval approaches, that aim to annihilate horse worms with randomly selected chemicals, continue to harm our horses and our pastures. Our worm egg counts identify the type of worm infecting your horse so you can make an informed product choice.

• Lower the worm burden on your pasture

Determine how individual horses are contributing to the egg contamination of your pastures. Modern worm control approaches aim to control worm egg shedding and minimise the risk of parasitic disease. Horse worms naturally exist where horses graze and eradication is proven impossible.

• Monitor your chemical free philosophy

A holistic approach to deworming includes worm egg counts for surveillance. Modern worm control is all about striking a balance. Parasitologists recommend informed worm control strategies that help horse owners test more and treat less. Regular and ongoing surveillance helps to protect your horses.

• Preserve beneficial soil life and protect the biodiversity of your pasture

The health of our pastures effects the health of our horses. Environmental ecosystems play a crucial role in our horses’ overall health and wellbeing and a crucial role in sustainable worm control. Worm egg count guided deworming helps to reduce unnecessary chemicals into our environment.

• Follow horse wormer manufacturer recommendations

Horse worm treatment manufacturers recommend performing a worm egg count test before and after worming treatments to gather valuable diagnostic information.

• Check your non-chemical methods

Modern sustainable worm control is also about "cleaning up" the environment. Determine whether your non-chemical methods (such as pasture rotational practices, manure removal, stocking rate, alternate grazing with cattle and sheep) are paying off by monitoring horses with worm egg counts. If all horses on pasture have consistent high worm egg counts it may be due to a worm load on pasture.