A HEALTHY START FOR FOALS
Effective parasite control is a vital part of giving young horses a healthy start in life. Foals are born free of parasites but are often exposed to them within the first few days of life.
Youngsters are especially vulnerable as their immune systems take time to mature. They will need a careful schedule of tests and treatment to ensure the wellbeing of mum and baby.
The mare in pregnancy
Good management begins before the foal is born. The mare should be monitored with worm egg counts every three months and tapeworm tests every six months, treating as the results indicate plus a winter dose for encysted redworm. Check with your vet or SQP to ensure any wormers are licenced for use in pregnant mares.
Keep the pasture as clean as possible by poo picking or cross grazing, resting paddocks and taking care not to overgraze the fields. Foals and young stock are especially vulnerable to ascarids. Due to the thick sticky shell of the ascarid egg these parasites can survive extremes of hot and cold and remain dormant on pasture for many years which is why fresh grazing is recommended for mares and foals.
Due date
Threadworm, Strongyloides westeri is the first potential parasite to be concerned with in foals. This worm has the ability to live freely in the environment as well as in the horse as a host species. It's the female threadworm that can penetrate the horse’s skin and, once there, take up residence and remain in the body tissue for many years. Threadworm in the mare can also be passed through the milk to infect the foal.
Although a Strongyloides infection has potential to cause mild to moderate digestive upset and diarrhoea in some foals, it is no longer considered best practice to treat the mare before foaling as a preventative. This approach is not advised because of the greater risk of contributing to the development of resistance in other parasites, unless there is a known history of threadworm infection on the premises.
Instead take a worm egg count at 4 weeks old and from then at intervals of 8 weeks, to monitor egg shedding levels of threadworm and other parasites. Your vet will be able to determine if clinical signs combined with the result warrant an appropriate treatment or whether the diarrhoea could be linked to another cause.
A single dose of fenbendazole is the preferred treatment for foals. Mares requiring treatment pre foaling should be wormed proactively with a dose of moxidectin (Equest) four weeks before the foaling due date or an ivermectin based wormer around foaling time - our preference if you're going to treat is to use the moxidectin wormer as we prefer not to give chemicals around such a critical time as foaling. Healthy foals should acquire a natural immunity or tolerance to this parasite at around six months of age.
Foaling to 5 yEARS OLD!
For the latest advice visit our section on Foals and Young Horses
General Notes
- Moxidectin is not a suitable drug for young foals until they have a sufficient covering of body fat.
- Ivermectin is not the best choice of product for routine dosing of young horses as there is some known resistance to ascarids.
- If you have any health concerns about your mare or foal please consult your vet.
While it goes against the recommendations for worming adult horses, young foals need proactive treatment to protect them from parasites. Incorporating worm counts and tests into the programme early on will help to identify the wormy horses and those that are going to need more support, preventing any potential problems developing from unnecessary parasite burdens.