health ‘n’ wellbeing


Pfizer and Westgate help horse owners understand faecal worm egg counts


The worming experts at Pfizer Animal Health and Westgate Laboratories have combined their expertise to help horse owners understand why Faecal Worm Egg Counts (FWECs) are one of the most important tools to help with summer worm control. David Booth at Westgate explains: “A Faecal Worm Egg Count simply involves collecting a sample of fresh dung and sending it, in the special packaging provided, to a specialist laboratory. There it will be analysed and the number of worm eggs in the sample will be measured and reported back to you as eggs per gram. Results and worming can then be discussed with an experienced animal health advisor.” Ben Lacey at Pfizer continues: “FWECs are invaluable during the grazing season as they will indicate how many eggs each horse is contributing to the contamination of your pasture. Eggs hatch into worm larvae, so the higher the egg count the more larvae will be on the grazing - increasing the risks of re-infecting all the horses with worms.”


Conducting regular FWECs can help you


to target your worming treatments by only dosing horses with a significant worm burden, which will stop them from re-infecting the pasture for a period after the treatment. The horses with low egg counts are less likely to need a treatment as they are not contributing as many new worms onto the pasture. The test can also give you an indication of whether your wormer is working, if you take a FWEC before and after administering a wormer.


Ben Lacey at Pfizer concludes: “It is essential to remember though that a standard FWEC will not give a clear indication of tapeworm, encysted small redworm or bots. For these you will need to use a proven wormer on a strategic basis – usually in the autumn and spring for tapeworm and late autumn/early winter for encysted small redworm.”


Do you know what’s in your haynet? new campaign launches.....


Two leading horse care experts have joined forces to highlight the importance of understanding what’s in a horse’s hay ration and balancing the animal’s diet accordingly. Barefoot hoofboot distributor Trelawne Equine is working with feed manufacturer Dengie Crops to help educate horseowners about the availability of hay analysis, which


is used to assess a horse’s nutritional status.


“Good quality, low-sugar forage should form the largest part of a horse’s diet, but it is also important to make sure he is receiving all the vitamins and minerals he needs to thrive, as a deficiency or imbalance will quickly show up in the horse’s hooves. This is the reason many barefoot owners are focussed on getting their


horses’


diets right, in order to maximise hoof


health and soundness,” says Lucy Nicholas of Trelawne Equine, author of JA Allen’s ‘The


Barefoot Horse’. “This is why we advocate hay


analysis, Please mention farm ‘n’ equine when replying to advertisements


and in particular Dengie’s excellent service, as it forms a great starting point for devising a suitable diet for each individual horse.” Dengie’s forage analysis service normally costs £20 for the basic analysis which includes protein, fibre and oil, or £30 for the comprehensive test which includes minerals. However the company is offering 20% off this price to customers that quote a code that can be found at Trelawne Equine’s facebook page - facebook.com/TrelawneEquine. Once you have the code, simply email feeds@dengie.com with your personal details, quoting this code. You will then receive a ration evaluation sheet which should be returned with a sample from your regular hay ration. “We look forward to raising awareness about this service to all horse owners with the ‘What’s in your haynet?’ campaign. Hay analysis is something of a secret weapon when it comes to devising targeted equine diets, and helps owners ensure their feed supplementation is relevant to the animal’s base hay ration and is being supplied at the correct levels,” explains Dengie’s equine nutritionist, Katie Williams.


Visit - www.trelawneequine.co.uk or www.dengie.com for further details about the two companies.


Equine Page 7


For further information about this important health issue check out Pfizer Animal Health’s new website at www. wormingyourhorse.info, which includes a comprehensive section on FWECs, visit www.westgatelabe.co.uk or speak to your usual vet or Animal Health Advisor.


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