Case Studies

Case Study

Using CANTER Risk Profiling to Support Roo’s Parasite Control

For Anna and her horse Roo, dressage has been a journey of partnership and progression. From their first unaffiliated competitions to now competing at affiliated elementary level with British Dressage, their success has relied not only on training but also on Roo’s ongoing health and wellbeing. Anna follows a simple test-based programme for Roo’s parasite control, established by assessing his parasite risk profile using the CANTER profiling tool, with help from prescribers at Westgate Labs, guided by ongoing interpretation of his test results.

Case Study

Fern; A Case of Summer Sores

Fern is a 7 year old Dales pony who has always been very sensitive to flies. In August of 2024 she got a summer sore on her lip for the first time. This year she has them on her legs! Most of the UK has had an usually dry Spring and we’ve received several calls from customers about summer sores appearing on horses mouths already.

Case Study

Quartz – to treat or not to treat?

Quartz is a healthy eight-year-old pony with worm egg count results consistently less than 200 e.p.g. over the last year, living in a closed herd with good paddock management, Quartz is therefore considered low risk for parasite infection so fits the selection criteria for use of the small redworm blood test to inform his winter worm control. Quartz’s blood sample was duly taken by the vet and his results were a bit of a surprise. Find out why we think his case perfectly highlights the need to be proactive about parasite control.

Case Study

Eric; A 2 Year Old with an Alarming Amount of Redworm!

Eric lived the first two years of his life at the stud where he was foaled, hanging out with other youngsters and enjoying life, a great start for his development but high risk for parasite infection. One of first things his new owner did was to carry out a worm egg count. The test came back as a high count of 1250 epg for redworm. He was wormed appropriately but then his next worm egg count came back even higher. We thought you'd be interested to know more about his story and the approach we're taking to his treatment.

Case Study

Maverick; A four week old foal with a surprising worm egg count result!

Foals are born free of parasites but get exposed to them within the first few days of life and we recommend proactively worming foals from four weeks old, every six to eight weeks. With wormer resistance increasing it can be advisable to put a couple of worm egg counts into your programme during this time but we don’t often get samples to test from very young foals. But as this handsome chap, a Quarter Horse foal called Maverick, belongs to one of our team, we were of course straight in to take a peak in his poo and were surprised at what we found!

Case Study

Livery Yards - Finding a Better Way!

Laura Szuca, our Brand Ambassador, keeps her horse Mikey on a yard with 40 other horses. The livery yard owner found the thought of making a change to a targeted parasite control programme a bit daunting, but with our support they took the plunge and have found a better way!

Case Study

Fern; a young horse with a challenging redworm problem

Fern is a Dales Pony who arrived as a weanling at 11 months old with no known worming history. Horses who haven’t had worming support during this early stage in life often go on to have more parasite problems than those that have proactive help. This is because their immature immune systems have had no support to defend them from parasites. Over the next couple of years Fern struggled with a challenging redworm infection that gave us plenty of cause for concern.

Case Study

Ghost’s collection of spooky critters

A run down immune system can leave a horse susceptible to all sorts of parasites. Ghost is a 10 year old pony who Sarah bought in very poor condition 3rd January 2021. As you can see, he arrived underweight, under muscled and also itching!

Case Study

How Sand Testing Helped Sophie Return To Health

Sophie arrived with her current owner in poor condition. She had been grazing coastal pasture, was underweight and generally in poor health. Blood test results from her vet suggested she was suffering from sand colitis. A sedimentation test revealed a 7% sand burden in her faeces.