When it comes to deworming horses, the "blanket" approach is quickly losing its effectiveness due to drug-resistant parasites. So what’s a horse owner to do? According to results of a recent study by Texas A&M University (TAMU), owners should perform routine fecal egg counts to determine which dewormers are effective on specific farms.

In their study, the TAMU researchers evaluated and compared three dewormers’ efficacy on fecal egg count reductions of cyathostomins (small strongyles) and Parascaris equorum (large roundworms) in 30 naturally infected foals from the same Texas farm.

“We used foals because they are the ones who would normally get disease, especially when both cyathostomes and Parascaris are involved,” relayed Joe Luksovsky, MS, diagnostic parasitologist in TAMU’s College of Veterinary Medicine