Deworming Schedule

We have been deworming horses effectively for over 50 years with the same strategies, but in the last 5-10 years, there has been research done to improve the deworming protocols used now to create less resistance (and a lot of the time, less work for owners). Keep reading for instructions on how to deworm your horse!!

Step One

The first step in parasite control in our four-legged, equine friends is the use of a Fecal Exam. At CMT Equine, we run in-house, automated fecal egg counts to determine the load burden of each horse. We like to run them 1-2 times a year to find out what type of dewormer and how often we need to deworm each horse.

Advantages to Fecal Exams and Advised Deworming

  • Less work! Most horses don’t need to be dewormed as often as every other month.

  • Less money! Tons of different dewormers aren’t always necessary.

  • Less resistance! More parasites around that our dewormers work on vs. those that are hardy enough to withstand all classes of dewormers.

For more in-depth information, please visit the AAEP’s latest guidelines on internal parasite control:

Step Two

Determining each horse’s parasite plan is unique and depending on what our fecal exam reveals, may be different for each horse. Talking in depth with our office about what dewormers to use and how often, is really an integral part of the process. We frequently reference the Deworming Schedule included below.

Deworming Schedule

FOALS AND WEANLINGS —DEWORM EVERY TWO MONTHS

Yes, we did say that most horses didn’t need dewormer every 2 months, but foals and weanlings are much more prone to roundworms, which need to be treated against every 2 months to prevent a high worm load and the potential for the worms to create impactions. By deworming every 2 months, we also prevent a large amount of die-off, which happens when there is a high burden of worms, and they all die at once from a large deworming event and can cause impaction of the dead worms.