Westgate Ambassadors
Sarah Bullimore - Bullimore Eventing
Miri Hackett - Hackett Equine
Ally Kelly - Ally Approved
Joe Midgley - Good Horsemanship
Sally Rowe - Follow the Rabbit
Laura Szuca - WannaBe in the Ribbons
Horse Health Ambassadors
The Info Zone section of our website also has a vast range of helpful resources.
Suggested hashtags
#AD #testedbywestgate #westgatelabs #horseparasites #horseowners #horsehealth #horsemanagement #healthyhorses #horseworming #evidencebasedcontrol #wormcount #wormeggcounts
Useful Links
ASA influencer guidelines
Popular Key Facts
- Using regular worm egg counts and targeting treatments only where needed can help to reduce worming by around 82%.
- Worm egg counts are the cornerstone of parasite control. Simple, affordable and part of the fight against wormer resistance, it tests for infection levels of adult, egg laying redworm and roundworm in equines, including horses, ponies, donkeys and mules.
- Worm egg counts are our best and most cost-effective way to monitor two of our most prolific parasites; adult stages of the redworm and ascarid. They’re easy to do and this approach is better for our horse, the environment and resistance and often works out cheaper too.
- Redworm, roundworm & tapeworm are the biggest pathological threats to horses and the parasites for which we should test regularly.
- 95% of the worm eggs found in horses belong to the small redworm.
- Ascarids have a tough outer shell which means they can survive in soil for up to 10 years and at any point they can hatch to infect horses grazing the pasture.
- EquiSal tapeworm testing - fewer than 30% of horses tested need worming.
- 80% of the worms are in 20% of the horses - More often than not, in a herd of horses all kept the same, 20% of the horses will carry 80% of the worms, these are known as high egg shedders. Some horses have naturally better immunity to parasites than others and this can be influenced by a whole host of factors such as genetics, breed, age, behaviour as well as their exposure to parasites when out training or at competitions.
- Horses can produce around 3-5% of their body weight in dung every day. For an average 16hh horse that’s around 18kg of dung a day or 6.5 tons every year
- Research shows removing dung from pasture reduces both the numbers of eggs shed in faeces (Tzelos et al, 2017) and numbers of infective larvae present on pasture (Herd, 1986) which lowers the risk of infection
- Current recommendations are to poo pick at least twice per week (Corbett et al, 2014), especially when the weather is wet and mild. This is because redworm larvae can move further and faster from dung onto pasture in these conditions.
- Only two chemicals, moxidectin (Equest) and five day courses of fenbendazole (Panacur) are licenced for the treatment of the encysted stages of small redworm. This is why we like to preserve Equest for winter use.
- Each group of parasites has specific characteristics, drugs effective to treat them and some have seasonal threats to be aware of.
- Much like with antibiotics, parasites are evolving to become resistant to worming drugs which means we can no longer rely on keeping horses free, purely by giving them wormers.
Useful Links
Seasonal messages and up top date advice on our NEWS page
Parasite info
Videos including 'How To's'
Main FAQ's
Westgate EQUINE testing services
An outline of our main testing services which all come with free, vet approved follow up advice and we also offer a free, no obligation, consultation.
Worm Egg Count
Test kit to test for infection levels of adult, egg laying redworm and roundworm in equines, including horses, ponies, donkeys and mules. Test kit includes everything you need to take and send a sample including pre-paid voucher(s) for laboratory testing with no end time limit on use.
Shop Link - bit.ly/HorseWormEggCount
4Count Season Packs
The Season Packs offer the most convenient and economical way to buy your tests for 12months of testing. Suitable for the testing of all equines including horses, ponies, donkeys and mules.
The 4Count Season pack contains everything you need to target a horse’s redworm and roundworm control for 12 months. It includes 4 worm egg counts with no end time limit on use.
4count PLUS season pack contains everything you need to target a horse’s redworm, ascarid and tapeworm control for 12 months. It includes 4 worm egg counts PLUS two EquiSal tapeworm tests with no end time limit on use.
Shop Link - bit.ly/SeasonPacks
Subscription Service
The All Seasons subscription service offers an affordable best practice parasite control programme with 6 different subscription types to suit horse and budget, starting from £3.79pcm.
Essential Care plans include worm egg counts while Complete Care plans also include EquiSal saliva tests. Both are plans are available for healthy adult horses, young horses up to 4yrs old, or high risk horses, such as veterans and competition horses.#
For a simple monthly payment you receive a bespoke plan for each horse and the tests needed sent direct to your door for peace of mind parasite control
All plans have an annual allowance towards any incidental tests that might be required plus reduction tests to check for wormer resistance. .Subscribers also get exclusive free entry into a regular prize draw to win Westgate goodies and other gifts.
Shop link - bit.ly/AllSeasonsSubscription
Reduction Test
Worm egg count kit to test to do after worming for resistance to redworm and roundworm in equines, including horses, ponies, donkeys and mules. Following a positive redworm or roundworm count that has required worming treatment or a winter worming dose for the possibility of encysted redworm, a second worm egg count can be conducted, ideally 10-14 days after treatment to test for drug efficacy.
Shop Link - bit.ly/ReductionTests
Commercial Yard Kits
Worm egg count kit for yards of 10 or more horses to test for infection levels of adult, egg laying redworm and roundworm in equines, including horses, ponies, donkeys and mules. Test kit includes everything you need to take and send a sample including pre-paid voucher(s) for laboratory testing. Yards of 10 horses or more can access the postal worm count service at our commercial rate
Shop Link - bit.ly/Yard-Test-Kits
Free yard consultation - bit.ly/Yard-Free-Consult
Pinworm Test
Pinworm sellotape impression test kit (with pre-paid voucher) used to determine the presence of pinworm eggs (Oxyuris equi). Suitable for use with all equines including horses, ponies, donkeys and mules and other grazing animals.
Shop Link - bit.ly/Pinworm-Test-Kit
Sand Tests
Faecal sand testing to monitor sand levels in the gut by dissolving dung in water and observing the amount of sediment that settles in the sample overnight. Includes two kits in one pack.
Shop Link - bit.ly/Sand-Test
Lungworm
Worm egg count kit to test for lungworm. If a lungworm infection is suspected then a faecal sedimentation test can be used to confirm this. This separates out the comparatively heavy eggs of the lungworm from the faecal matter for identification under the microscope. Because the parasite rarely reaches egg laying potential in the horse, it is often better to test the donkeys or mules thought to be the host of infection, rather than the horse that is showing symptoms.
Shop Link - bit.ly/LungwormTestKit
Liver Fluke
Worm egg count kit to test for liver fluke in equines (including horses, ponies, donkeys and mules) and other grazing animals. To test equines for liverfluke we follow guidelines from Glasow University and test using three separate faecal samples taken from the same animal on three consecutive days, refrigerating the first two samples before posting to us on the third day. For best results test February - May when the eggs are most likely to be shed.
Shop Link - bit.ly/Liver-Fluke-Test
When to Test
A single worm egg count is a useful snapshot but it’s a series of counts across a season that really helps to build up a picture of a horse’s immune health.
*WEC for redworm and ascarids every 8-12 weeks
EquiSal saliva test for Tapeworm every 6 months
When to test is based on the parasite life cycles and risk factors of the horse dependant on age, health and environment.
Healthy Adult Horse - WEC every 12 weeks (3 months) or think every season; Spring, Summer, Autumn then blood test or treat for encysted redworm in Winter
High Risk Horses - WEC every 8 weeks and this includes youngsters under 4yrs old, veterans, horses with health conditions that challenge immunity e.g. cushings, PSSM and competition horses or others that frequently travel away from home and graze unknown pasture, in the lorry park, temporary stabling etc.
Useful Links
Getting Started with targeted parasite control
How to take a worm egg count
Getting as accurate a result as possible from your test begins with collecting the dung sample. Redworm and roundworm eggs, which are the parasites we are predominantly looking for when we carry out a worm egg count, are distributed fairly evenly through the faeces. This is what makes a worm count a very good test for detecting adult, egg laying infections of these worms.
Choose a day to collect samples when worming is due or overdue for most of the horses. This is important so that you don’t get a false result caused by wormer still working in your horse – unless you are carrying out a reduction test specifically to measure wormer resistance. The dung should be as fresh as possible but can still be posted the day after collection.
1. Use the glove to pick up about five small pinches from different places across a fresh dung
pile.
2. Press the dung into the sample container, filling it to the top to exclude air. This is important
to ensure we have sufficient dung for a representative test.
3. Label the sample with the horse’s name and number it if you are sending more than one
sample in the envelope. Please write in ball point pen as water based inks may wash off.
4. Put the container in the plastic bag. Do not put any paperwork in with it.
5. Put sample and paperwork into the postpaid return bag. Pop in the post box.
6. Worm egg counts are tested on the day we receive them using the industry standard
‘Modified McMaster technique’.
Useful Links
Taking a Dung Sample: bit.ly/TakingDungSample
How to do an EquiSal saliva tapeworm test: bit.ly/HowTo-EquiSal
Resistance
What will we do when the wormers don’t work anymore? We have no more wormers in development; if we end up with resistance to all our available wormers then we will be forced to give up keeping horses on that land.
Much like with antibiotics, parasites are evolving to become resistant to worming drugs which means we can no longer rely on keeping horses free, purely by giving them wormers.
This is extremely worrying because without effective treatment our horses are at risk of
serious parasitic disease and death. The more we use these drugs and expose the worms to the
chemicals, the more quickly resistance develops. So, this is a very serious threat to our horses.
But neither is it enough to simply widen the gap between treatments. At around 4-6 weeks from egg
to adult, the lifecycle of the small redworm, is one of the quickest which means that a brewing
parasite challenge can quickly get out of hand.
We need to test first and target only the wormy horses using the most appropriate wormer according to the individual horse, type of worm treating and the time of year. Using wormers sparingly should also mean that they stay effective for those times when our horses really need them.
The good news is that chemicals are not the only weapon in our armoury. The correct wormer dose, grazing management, poo picking and cross-grazing are just a few ways we can help.
resistance - yards
This is the frightening and very real prospect facing horse owners, farmers and other livestock keepers as the advance of wormer resistance bites! Small redworm are some of our most numerous and dangerous horse parasites and, worryingly, are now showing resistance to every licensed wormer we have available to treat them. There are no more equine wormers in development, so we must act now to buy more time. It’s the worms on the land that develop the resistance to the chemicals.
On fields where wormers have been used intensively in the stock that graze them there comes a point where we can no longer keep that species without them succumbing to untreatable parasite burdens. This would be a devastating outcome for many equestrian centres, livery yards and horse owners. To slow the development of resistance we must turn to evidence based control, using worm egg counts every 8-12 weeks as the cornerstone of our parasite control programmes and targeting wormers only where they’re needed
Useful Links
Wormer resistance: bit.ly/WormerResistance
Slowing resistance: bit.ly/Top10ToSlowResistance
What wormers to use
CANTER
Controlling ANTiparasitic resistance in Equines Responsibly
https://canterforhorses.org.uk
A new pan-industry group and the first of its kind worldwide, formed to tackle the increasing threat that wormer resistance poses to horse health and the equine industry.
Useful Links
Main info for horse owners: bit.ly/CANTER-HorseOwners
Assess your horse's parasite risk: bit.ly/canter-risk
Tools and infographics
Seasonal Worm Control
Spring (Mar-May): bit.ly/SpringParasiteControl
- Worm egg count for redworm and ascarids
- EquiSal test for tapeworm if you haven't in the last six months
- Look out for signs of pinworm
- Plan carefully for any foaling mares
Summer (Jun-Aug): bit.ly/SummerParasiteControl
- Worm egg count for redworm and ascarids
- EquiSal test for tapeworm if you haven't in the last six months
- look out for bots, pinwormand ticks
- monitor sand levels in the gut with a faecal sand test
Autumn (Sep-Nov): bit.ly/AutumnParasiteControl
- Worm egg count for redworm and ascarids
- EquiSal test for tapeworm if you haven't in the last six months
- Look out for signs of pinworm
- Plan carefully for any foaling mares
Winter (Dec-Feb): bit.ly/WinterParasiteControl
- Decide on approach for encysted redworm – test or treat
- EquiSal test for tapeworm if you haven't in the last six months
- Consider a reduction test to monitor wormer efficacy
Winter is the only season when we advise proactively treating when temperatures on the pasture have dropped consistently below 6C.
Lifecycle of redworm – In winter they encyst into the gut wall ready to emerge when temperatures increase in the Spring.
Useful Links
Seasonal parasite control
Westgate and the Environment
Westgate retail test kits are a unique zero waste design. As part of our commitment to the environment we've made as much of our packaging biodegradable as possible and even the ink is vegetable based!
Returned envelopes are composted which is then used for tree planting on the 130 acre nature reserve we have established on our smallholding, also helping to offset our carbon.
Together with the refill options on our popular 4Count Season Packs this has reduced our waste to landfill by an impressive 75%!
Useful Links
Westgate and the environment: bit.ly/WestgateAndTheEnvironment
Parasite control and dung beetles: bit.ly/TakeCareOfDungBeetles
