RADIO TRANSCRIPT
January 10, 2025
Damon Pollard

This is Damon Pollard, Livestock agent with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service-Burke Center. Today’s topic is Deworming Horses.
In short, parasite control in horses is much different than in other farm livestock. With cattle, the goal is to increase performance, by reducing the competition for nutrients from the parasites.

With the horse, we deworm in order to increase the animals useful life, seeking to maintain a high level of athletic ability. The intensiveness of this parasite control is mandated by a unique physical attribute of horses. In horses, the mesenteric artery supplies the entire blood supply to their digestive system. Any migrating strongyles use their mouthparts to hold on as they climb against the flow of blood in this 3-4 inch long passageway.

Just as mosquitoes irritate our skin as they bite, these worms irritate the lining of the mesenteric artery as they move through it. Over time, continued irritation to the lining, weakens the walls, and aneurysms develop. During exercise or strenuous activity, these can rupture, and the animal will die in a matter of seconds. Over the years, horses left alone on pasture, without a strategic deworming rotation, can be ticking time bombs, where one stressful event can trigger an aneurysm, followed by instant death. So, deworm your horses on a scheduled rotation and you may well extend their lives.

This is Damon Pollard, Livestock Agent with The North Carolina
Cooperative Extension Service-Burke Center. If you would like more
information, call us at 439-4460.