Worms - What Every Horse Owner Should Know

Every horse owner should know that there are four basic types of parasitic worms that commonly make themselves at home on a horse’s body. These worms can make feeding and walking in the pasture a very miserable and even challenging experience for your equine friend. A horse with too many worms in its body can even potentially die. It is recommended that a horse is de-wormed on an annual basis. This helps ensure that worms will not survive or multiply and take over your horse’s body.

If you have any questions about which medications work best for preventive de-worming, contact your vet. There are many medications on the market today that can kill one or more species of worm. Horses most often contract worms from poor living conditions, while other horses contract them when they have been mistreated or have drank from contaminated drinking water. What can you do to make sure your horse stays healthy? Make sure to cleaning out their stalls and refresh their water everyday in order to prevent spreading the worms to the other horses living in the stable.

There four types of worms that most often attack horses. These are strongyles, tapeworms, ascarids, and bots. The first three of these worms can infect a horse through the feces. This can occur when a contaminated horse leaves feces on the ground and another horse steps on it. Eventually, the feces will get into the feed, grass and water supply. Strongyles most often seem to affect younger horses. The larvae develop in the arteries, gut wall and liver. Larvae travel through the body and move towards the large intestine where they will live out their life. Once burrowed in the large intestine, strongyles will feed on the digested food. This means that few nutrients are left for the horse, causing your horse many health problems. Potential health problems include stunted growth, intestinal problems, artery collapse and even death. Horses are often contained according to age and health after a suspected strongyles outbreak.

The least common type of infection includes tapeworms. Tapeworms are also transferred by unclean stall conditions and through feces. Tapeworms can potentially live for years inside the stomach lining of its host. If tapeworms gather in the stomach, it can lead to blockage and premature death. Tapeworms can be up to twelve inches long and keep your horse from ingesting proper nutrients from their food. Horse breeders can do many things in order to prevent the spread of tapeworms. Feed should be rotated in order to make sure it is free of feces. Clean stalls can also help prevent the spread of parasites. If stalls are cleaned, tapeworm infestations should not be a big concern. Getting rid of a tapeworm is far more difficult than spending time trying to prevent it.

If the head of a tapeworm is not removed with the rest of its body, it can sustain itself in the horse’s body for a long time. Treating them with medicine takes time, so prevention is definitely your best bet.

Ascarids are another type of worm that can affect the liver and the small intestine of your horse. These are similar to strongyles in that they affect younger horses. Proper cleaning of stalls is important in keeping ascarids infestation to a minimum. If not treated, colic or aneurism can result in premature death.

Bots are transferred a little differently than these other worms. Insects transport bots infections. They land on the horse’s hair, most often via flies, and then the horse ingests the eggs. These eggs turn into larvae on the horse’s tongue and eventually the worms make their way to the animal’s stomach. There they live on digested food and stomach acids, resulting in a smaller and weaker horse that is being starved of the right nutrients. Bot eggs should be removed by cutting them out of horsehair. They can be wiped off with warm water, thus preventing your horse from swallowing them.

In order to prevent all kinds of infestations, keep your horse’s stalls clean and refreshed every few days with new hay and grass. Change your horse’s drinking water at least once a day. Regular grooming will prevent bots and other worms from being ingested. Separate younger horses from the older ones during pasture in order to prevent the spread of strongyles and ascarids. Since worms are so easy to spread, make sure to keep all horses clean and stalls fresh.

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