News Straight from the horse's mouth

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EARLYBIRD OFFERS FOR JANUARY 2022

DISCOUNTS ON HORSE SEASON PACKS, POULTRY & FARM ANIMAL TESTS

Get yourself a head start on parasite control in 2022; until midnight on 31st January 2022 we're offering buy four worm egg counts for the price of three on our popular horse season packs and 10% off test kits for Poultry and Farm Animals!

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Another Big Thank You From Us to You!

For your custom through 2021

😘🙏 We wanted to say a massive thank you to you, our ever amazing customers, new and old, for standing by us through another tricky year. We’re so grateful to each and every one of you for your custom, your loyalty and your ongoing commitment to your horse’s health.

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Winter Parasite Control 2021/22

Which Parasites to Consider and What to Target

There is one dangerous parasitic stage of the small redworm that we need to be particularly aware of at this time of year as it can have fatal consequences. Winter is the season to consider how we tackle the possibility of encysted redworm. This means either blood testing or treating with an appropriate wormer.

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Christmas Opening Hours 2021

For the laboratory and office

We’ll be open as normal 9am – 5pm up to and including 23rd December. Over the Christmas Holidays our lab and office will be operating a reduced hours service; we’ll test and send any shop orders and results each day there is a post but the main office will remain closed for general enquiries. We'll be back to our normal hours from Tuesday 4th January. As usual we’ll do our best to respond to any pressing queries as soon as possible. If you need a direct response out of hours, then please send these via Facebook messenger. If you’d like to speak to one of our team for advice please leave a message on the answerphone and we will give you a call back when we’re in the office.

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Service Update 29th November 2021

Storm Arwen

Storm Arwen swept through Northumberland, where we are based, over the weekend and has left us without power, some broken fences and a field shelter not where we left it! Thankfully no humans or animals were hurt in the storm and only minor damage, but we have been left feeling a little battered and very chilly! We want to reassure customers that the lab is open for testing, but the admin team will be working from home where possible. Until we are back to normal operation, there are a couple things that you can help us with.

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Green Friday 2021

Join in with Green Friday!

We hope you’ll join us in supporting Green Friday this year, the antidote to chaos and consumerism. It costs nothing and will definitely add to your positive glow up! The focus is on giving rather than receiving, on having fun and being out in nature.

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Don't Treat for Encysted Redworm Too Early

Wait for Winter!

We have recently spoken with a number of people recently who either have already, or were planning to treat their horses now, with the winter dose for encysted redworm. This parasitic stage of the small redworm can have fatal consequences so it is important that we tackle it at the appropriate time. Temperatures are still relatively high for the time of year, so as part of a targeted worm control programme, we are still considered to be in autumn. Ideally we need to wait for winter to set in before we tackle the possibility of encysted redworm, either with a blood test or by treating with an appropriate wormer.

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Individual & Team Finalists in the National SQP awards 2021

Equine SQP of the Year and Special Achievement Awards

There is double the excitement this week as we're really proud to say that both the lab team and Director Claire are finalists in the National SQP awards 2021! Claire is shortlisted for Equine SQP of the Year and the Team are up for the Special Achievement Award.

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

Effective worming is a vital part of giving young horses a healthy start

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!