Puzzled by worm count results.

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anniebags

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I have an 18 month old colt pony (ungelded to date due to retained testicles but due to be gelded come autumn). He was in a very poor state this time last year when we took him on but has improved dramatically with a bit of tlc and good grub.

When we first got him he was wormed routinely as he looked to be very wormy and since then he has been worm counted twice up to now and both counts came back at <50 so he wasn't wormed other than routine tapeworm . Due to him being a colt I have struggled to find a companion to turn him out with until around 8 weeks ago when he went to live with a neighbours gelding. This has worked out brilliantly as they get on great and he is thriving with his new best friend to keep him out of mischief. Now my pony was worm counted on the13 of June before going out with his new friend and the worm count was <50. A few days ago I thought I saw a worm in his poo so I worm counted the pair of them. To my horror the yearling has come back at 6050 strongyle eggs and his mature companion at 1500 eggs. Now how can we go from <50 to over 6000 in such a short time? The gelding has lived alone for at least a year and is regularly wormed and the paddock poo picked and the colt has had very restricted turnout without a field mate until he met his new partner in crime 2 months ago. I will of course be calling the lab tomorrow but I just wondered if anyone could account for the dramatic leap?
 
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Have you wormed him with a chemical wormer? I know youre supposed to worm for tape worms and encysted redworm, you can't just rely on worm counting. Sorry if you've done this. :o
 
Because unless you were taking an entire pile of dung, blending it and then taking the sample, there is a reasonable risk of false negatives such as you've had. Worms do not expell eggs evenly through time so the eggs aggregate in the dung - if you happen to pick your sample from where the eggs are, then you get an accurate reading, if not, you get an inaccurate one. I do wish the worm count companies would start including this information in their packs.

Add in a very wet summer (ideal for worms to thrive) and fields that have often had runoff from other areas over them (causing eggs/larvae to be moved from one area to another), and you get the sort of result you've seen. It's not that uncommon and is the reason why I don't worm count.
 
I'm on DIY livery and we have done a worm count this week. One horse in particular has gone from clear on the last count to 2000 whereas other horses in the same field have counts of 200, 600 and no eggs seen.

The horse with the high count has been under the weather and has had an infection a couple of months ago therefore it's low immune system may have contributed to the increase in worm count.

I have heard that the wet summer may have contributed to an increase in worm problems.
 
I think I'd check that it's not just a misprint before panicking. 1500 is easy to believe, and the horse should probably be wormed although the figure of 200 eggs per gram as a cut off was, I believe, plucked out of the air by someone long ago with no particular evidence to support it!
 
Thanks for your replies. I've spoken to the lab and they said as the yearling will have little natural 'immunity' to worms his count may have sky rocketed when exposed to them and for me not to be alarmed but to treat with Equest and re test in 3 months. I also thought it may have been a typo but apparently not.
 
Has your horse or the companion been out to a different venue at all within this time, and grazed at the different place? They can pick up worms via doing that, hence why ours are never allowed to graze at competitions.
 
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