Sudden worm burdens?!

[Nudibranch]

Brief details, 2 horses at home, lots of old pasture, cross grazing with sheep. Grazing rotated 6 monthly. Worm counts zero/below 100 for years.
Bought 3yo 2 years ago, counted at 300, wormed and zero/below 100 ever since. Wormed annually for tapeworm and encysted.

Results today - the older was 1050 and the now 5yo 2400! Last results in spring were clear. Only 2 things have changed - I have switched from MVF counts to Westgate. And there have been cows in for the last 3 months. However I thought cows were a benefit for worm control so surely it can't be them?

Any ideas? I am gutted...we had a really good system and it seems to have gone horribly wrong. I can't believe the MVF counts were totally wrong either, I know they have picked up high burdens in a friend's horse (living miles away from mine btw!).

 

[Laafet]

I had a similar one this year, horse has always had a zero/negliable count. He's lived in his own field the last 3 years, I poo pick religiously, then bang, he had a tapeworm egg present on his last test. I thought oh that's not too bad, but apparently it is bad as tapeworm rarely show on poo sampling unless there is a huge burden. I was gutted. Especially as he's pretty much only been wormed for tapeworm anyway so why are the buggers there!

 

[Goldenstar]

It’s curious and it happened to me recently years without having to worm them bang two of them had lower counts than yours but one needed worming one was just under the limit .
I was all for worming everyone , I was spooked .But the vet said no just the one and see what happens next time .
Which due is about now .

 

[WandaMare]

One of mine has come back at 200, which I know is still low, but mine have been zero for years, so I was still disappointed. All wormed and sorted but its frustrating not knowing why. I wondered if it was the tropical hot and very wet August we had, maybe perfect conditions this year. Interesting that others here are also getting higher counts.

 

[Somewhat Off The Way]

I also use Westgate and have had odd results too. Both horses borderline for tapeworm, gave Equest Pramox and retested and the results came back higher...! Not super high so although I've been advised to reworm and retest I've decided to leave it until March to test again. Curious. Both horses in fab condition with healthy, shiny coats and bags of energy so not worried about waiting a few months. Watching thread with interest.

ETA I poo pick daily and rotate grazing too.

 

[PurBee]

I wonder about cross grazing too and the effects of eggs in the poop of the other grazers contaminating pasture.

i have wild deer grazing mine every night and ive had high worm counts from my 2 who are grazing land that hasnt been grazed for decades by anything but deer. When i got them here i was doing a regular worm count and very regular worming regime.

im not an expert with cross-species parasite contamination but humans can get dog and pork tapeworm, so i wonder if horses can get roundworm eggs from deer/sheep/cow infecting them?
(hunters shooting for deer occassionally leave entrails of deer laying around...and ive personally witnessed the digestive tract literally burst from being full of masses of round worms...yeuch i know...)

 

[Nudibranch]

Yes, I have been wondering about wildlife. We have deer, badgers, etc. Although they've been here longer than us and we've never had high counts until now. It's odd. Perhaps the exceptionally mild winter last year and the wet summer haven't helped. I think we had 3 frosts maximum last winter, and we are up north, up high.

 

[Equi]

I was just about to say I wonder if the mild winter caused it. I really hope we get a hard frosty month this year.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Westgate posted on their FB page that they’ve been finding unexpectedly high WECs this last summer.

?? And just like that it's autumn already!! After a warm wet summer with a higher number of positive worm counts than normal across the UK it's especially important to keep a close eye on red worm and ascarid activity with a worm egg count for each horse this season.

Worm egg count for redworm and roundworm
Decide whether you need to EquiSal test for tapeworm
Keep an eye out for bots and pinworm activity

 

[bluehorse]

Mine’s had a positive tape count and a low positive roundworm count this year, been completely clear since I’ve owned him. I spoke to my vet about the tapeworm count as I ordered a targeted tapewormer through him. He said if you have a positive tapeworm count it’s not worth testing again for at least 2 cycles (so worm initially, then again at 6 and 12 months after the positive test). This is because the tapeworm test is based on antibodies which the horse will retain even after the tapeworm has been successfully treated, so you will get false positives. Not entirely relevant to the thread but just something to keep in mind...