December 22, 2001

Caring For Your Horse's Parasites

If we turn to Webster for the definition of 'Parasite' it states, 1. A person who lives at others expense without making any useful return. 2. A plant or animal that lives on or within another from which it derives sustenance.

I'm not sure but I think the first is referring to politicians but it is the second that refers to problems that occur within the horse and that is what we will discuss in this article.

Parasites are living things that live, reproduce and die in a very well known cycle. As the above definition states, they contribute almost nothing to the well being of the host animal, your horse. It does take energy for them to live and if they are in sufficient numbers, they can remove significant nutrients from the horse.

For you to maintain a full load of parasites, you must feed your horse enough food to feed the parasites as well as enough to keep the horse healthy. One thing you must remember is that parasites do not consider the health of the horse. They continue to live, as they wish, without regard to the health of the horse and will do so until the horse eventually dies. (Can you see a relationship to politicians and taxpayers?)

If your feed costs are getting too high, you may want to consider the possibility of eliminating the parasites so you only have to feed the horse. There are a number of ways to accomplish this goal. The one that I prefer is the old fashion method and that is to manage the problem and let mother nature work with you.

Most horse owners prefer the modern method, that is to use an anthelmentic. An anthelmentic is a poison that given in a correct dose will kill the parasites or some part of their life cycle without significantly damaging the horse.

I am reminded of a dairy client that asked me one day what I thought about worming his cows? I answered with, "if they have worms, it is a good idea." I then questioned him why he was asking? He told me that the feed salesman was there earlier and told him it would be a good idea. It told him that I could run a fecal sample to see if his cows had worms. I was sure that they didn't because they were tied in stalls and not let out of the barn. With no oral contact with fecal material, the life cycle of most parasites is interrupted and they die off. I told him that for less than $10 we could see if there were parasites. From the test, we could also find out what kinds of parasites the cows had and could choose the most effective poison to kill them. He decided to spend the $300 and worm them with a general wormer anyway. I do not recommend feeding a poison to an animal if there is no benefit possible. By the way, I did do a fecal for my own curiosity and it was negative.

If it is your desire to have a healthy load of parasites, the best way is to feed your horse on the same ground that they urinate and defecate. It also works to graze a small pasture very aggressively and do not rotate your pasture locations. Most parasite cycles occur with the adult parasite living within the host animal and releasing eggs into the gastro-intestinal system and passed with the fecal material. Eventually the animal needs to consume the parasitic form to maintain and increase their parasite population.

If you allow this cycle to continue without some form of interruption, and you choose to use an anthelmentic, all you are doing is killing off the adults and making room for the new younger parasites. This means you will need to readminister poison to your animal at a later time.

This parasite thing is very good for the people that sell hay, grain, wormers and horses. It hurts your pocket book and your horse.

I prefer to see people stopping this merry-go-round and use good management to interrupt the parasites life cycle. Then they need to use a properly selected anthelmentic to remove the existing adult parasites from the horse. The first and simplest way is to get the hay and feed out of the manure and into some clean feeder like the cow people do. Why do people feed good, clean hay on the floor of a soiled stall? As I have mentioned in earlier articles, does the waiter serve you good food on the rest room floor?

If you are grazing your horse, rotate your pastures such that there is at least three weeks between the time the horse is removed from a pasture and it returns. Let mother nature help you, as she did your ancestors that depended on the horse. During the three week break, in the summer, the sun has a chance to work on the eggs of the parasites. These eggs do not like sunlight. They do not do well if they are allowed to dry out. Many parasites in Minnesota will survive a cold winter either in the host animal or as an egg in the fecal material or ground.

Why would someone that sells hay and treats infected animals tell you this? Come to think about it, just forget everything that I just wrote about and call in your order for extra hay. To my knowledge, sunshine doesn't work on politicians.