News Straight from the horse's mouth

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Summer Parasite Control 2019

☀️🐴🕷🐛 Every season brings its problems and even though we look forward to the long light days, summer is no exception. So while the battle to control flies is a visible daily trial at this time of year it’s important to remember about other parasites too such as intestinal worms, pinworm, bots, ticks and summer sores that might affect the health of our horses.

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Westgate Labs helps to highlight World Horse Welfare’s vital work

by Sponsoring Frodo on the World Horse Trail

We’re delighted to be supporting World Horse Welfare, helping them to raise awareness of their vital work by getting involved with this summer’s World Horse Trail. The first leg kicked off at Windsor Horse Show, 8-12th May, where ten beautifully painted horse sculptures were positioned around the event. Each one portrays the story of a welfare case and Westgate is proud to be sponsoring the journey of Frodo’s sculpture.

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Easter Opening 2019

🐣🐇🥚 Counting eggs this Easter? Two bank holidays are definite cause for celebration; they also mean no post in the lab and consequently no samples to test! As a result the office will be closed both bank holidays, Friday 19th April and Monday 22nd April.

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REACT Now to Beat Colic

1- 7 April 2019 is National Colic Week

To help horse owners combat the life-threatening condition of colic, The British Horse Society and The University of Nottingham have teamed up to create the REACT Now to Beat Colic campaign. Highlighting common causes, management tips and symptoms, national colic week aims to raise awareness of one of the most common emergencies affecting horse health.

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Faecal sand testing now available for horses

to help reduce the risk of sand colic by monitoring sediment levels

Colic is one of the most common emergency problems in the horse and has many different causes, one of which can be sand in the horse’s gut. Animals ingest it as they graze and it can accumulate in the colon over time. Here it irritates the gut lining and, in sufficient quantity, also has the ability to cause impactions which, if not treated in time, can be fatal.

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Westgate Labs launch new All Seasons subscription programme

Simplify best practice parasite control today!

We've launched a new subscription service to make following a best practice parasite control programme even easier for our busy customers! The All Seasons service is a tailor made testing programme designed to take the guess work out of managing this important aspect of horse’s health. For one simple monthly subscription payment, you receive a bespoke plan for each horse and all the tests needed to target the right parasites at the right time of year sent direct to your door.

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Spring Parasite Control 2019

What to consider in your programme for the year ahead

The tantalising signs of spring in the air are a welcome sight for any horse owner. It’s enough to cheer the soul even if it does bring with it the joys of mass moulting and a rising risk of parasite infection. If you gave the suggested winter dose for the possibility of encysted redworm then now is the time to resume the regular testing programme. Don't delay your worm counts this Spring to make sure you're on top of any potential problems.

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20th Anniversary for Westgate Labs and postal worm counts

and postal worm counts for horses

🎂🎉 2019 marks a very special year for Westgate Labs as we celebrate our 20th anniversary of business helping to improve the way that horses are wormed in the UK. Laboratory founders, David and Gillian Booth, placed their first advert in Horse & Hound, 11th February 1999, and when forward thinking horse owners responded the concept of postal worm counts was born!

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Four winter worm counting myths busted

how and when to test in winter

There's a common misconception that worm egg counts shouldn’t be used over winter as ‘worms aren’t active’ and ‘small redworm are all encysted’ in the gut wall - therefore not egg laying to be counted in a test. Our response? Well, not quite… There are still a number of instances when a worm egg count can provide very useful information between the months of December and February.