You've had a fecal egg count done on your horse and the results were positive. As a responsible horse owner, you've dutifully given your horse dewormer, crossed your fingers, and hoped for the best. This approach will not tell you whether or not your deworming session has been effective.
The only way you will know is to retest. Horsemen's Laboratory recommends that the horse should be rechecked in 2-3 weeks after deworming following a positive test. There should be a 90% drop in the number of eggs seen in the follow-up fecal egg count unless one of the following situations occurs:
- The horse is infected with a strain of worms that is drug resistant.
- The horse did not swallow the full dose of dewormer.
Without the critical information provided by the follow-up fecal egg count, you would not even be aware that either of these situations had occurred. If you have questions about deworming or fecal egg count results, Dr. Byrd can provide guidance and help you decide the next best course of action.
Accepted New Deworming Protocol
We can't say it often enough ---- Horsemen's Laboratory highly recommends the new deworming protocol of testing first, followed by deworming only when necessary. The new deworming protocol minimizes your horse's exposure to unnecessary deworming, and also helps to reduce the rate of development of resistant strains of parasites.
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