Mal’s Equine Worm Egg Counts

09/02/2026

🐛 NEW – Pinworm testing now available ($15 per test)

👉 Rubbing tail?
👉 Scuffed or broken dock?
👉 Itchy under the tail?

Pinworms are one of the most commonly missed causes – and they do not show up on a normal faecal egg count.

✅ Simple sticky-tape test (not manure)
✅ Tested locally in Tasmania by Mal’s Equine – Worm Egg Counts
✅ Run by a qualified medical scientist with specialist parasitology training
✅ Clear, practical reports – no routine worming, just targeted advice

💲 $15 per horse

📩 Message me and I’ll send you the quick collection instructions.

I also offer faecal egg counts (FEC), FEC reduction tests, tapeworm testing, and an all-worm combo option to support targeted, evidence-based parasite control for your horses.

Smart. Strategic. Based on science. 🐴

06/02/2026

🪱 Pinworms – a hidden cause of the ugly rubbed tail

If your horse’s tail suddenly looks:
• thin
• broken
• rubbed right out at the dock 😬

There are a few common causes of tail rubbing —
👉 pinworms are one of the most common (and most missed) ones.

Other frequent causes can include:
• flies and general skin irritation
• mites or lice
• sweat and build-up under the dock
• contact or allergic skin reactions

But pinworms deserve a special mention because they:
• don’t show up on a normal faecal egg count
• and are very easy to overlook.

❗ Why pinworms cause so much rubbing

Pinworms lay their eggs around the a**s (the opening under the tail where manure comes out), not inside the gut.

That sticky residue causes:
• intense itchiness
• rubbing on posts, rails and walls
• the classic scuffed, ugly tail-head look

So your horse can:
✔ have a low or clear FEC
✔ still be extremely itchy

👀 A very useful visual clue

One of the biggest giveaways for pinworms is a sticky, creamy or yellow-white discharge around the a**s (the opening under the tail where manure comes out).

It can look like:
• dried, crusty patches on the skin
• a smeary or tacky residue
• flakes stuck to the hairs under the tail

This is the egg-laying material from the pinworms.

👉 If you’re seeing this as a shared post, please head to the original post and check the comments — I’ve added a real photo showing the classic pinworm indicator around the a**s (the opening under the tail where manure comes out).

👉 If you notice this discharge, that is a really good reason to do a pinworm sticky tape test — rather than just guessing.

🌱 Are pinworms seasonal?

Pinworms don’t have a sharp “on / off” season like bot flies.
They can be present at any time of year.

That said, tail rubbing and visible discharge are often noticed more during:
• warmer months
• humid conditions
• and when horses are spending more time standing around yards, rails and shelters

👉 So while pinworms aren’t strictly seasonal,
rubbing and reinfection cycles tend to become more obvious through spring and summer.

🧪 How pinworms are actually checked

Pinworms are best detected with a simple
sticky tape test taken from the skin around the a**s.

Not manure.
Not guessing.
Not “let’s just worm and hope”.

This is a proper test-first situation.

👉 I’ll be sharing details about a simple pinworm sticky tape testing option very soon.

🕒 When is the best time to test?

The sticky tape test works best:
• first thing in the morning, or
• before the area has been washed or groomed.

👉 If you’ve already cleaned the area, wait until the next day to test so any fresh egg material can be picked up properly.

🧼 Hygiene really matters (especially if rubbing is bad)

If pinworms are suspected – or confirmed – good hygiene helps reduce reinfection and spread between horses.

Practical, realistic steps:
• wash the dock and the skin under the tail, including around where the manure comes out (perineal area)
• clean fence rails, posts and walls that horses rub on
• don’t share tail brushes between horses
• wash grooming gear used on itchy horses
• keep bedding and yards as clean as practical

👉 Hygiene alone won’t fix pinworms,
but it can make a big difference to how quickly horses reinfect themselves and each other.

This becomes especially important when you have:
• multiple horses rubbing
• shared yards
• shared grooming equipment

👉 If the skin is badly broken, raw or infected, it’s worth involving your vet as well – pinworms may be part of the picture, but damaged skin sometimes needs extra support.

🐴 One rubbed tail doesn’t mean the whole herd needs worming

Just like with other parasites:

👉 one itchy horse
👉 one test
👉 one decision

Not a blanket dose for everyone.

✅ This still counts as doing something

Choosing to:
• test instead of guessing
• manage hygiene and the environment
• treat only if it’s actually needed

is exactly what responsible parasite control looks like.

🧠 The big picture

Pinworms are a perfect example of why:

• test where testing works
• scrape where scraping works
• treat when results suggest it’s needed

Smarter, not harder 🐴✨

30/01/2026

🪰 If not bots… then what?

If you’re hearing “don’t worm for bot flies yet” and thinking:
“Okay… so what actually does deserve attention right now?”
You’re asking exactly the right question.

Here’s a simple way to think about it 👇

🦠 Strongyles & roundworms

✅ FEC-based decisions

These parasites:
• vary hugely from horse to horse
• are the main drivers of wormer resistance
• do show up in manure samples

👉 This is where faecal egg counts guide whether worming is actually needed.

🧪 Tapeworm

✅ Specific test-based

Tapeworm:
• don’t reliably show up on standard FECs
• tend to be seasonal and regional
• need a tapeworm-specific test to assess risk

👉 This is a test I offer, because guessing here often leads to unnecessary combo wormers.

🪱 Pinworms

✅ Sticky tape testing

Pinworms:
• commonly cause tail rubbing and bum irritation
• lay eggs around the a**s, not in manure
• are often missed on FECs

👉 A simple sticky tape test can help confirm whether pinworms are actually the cause — before reaching for another wormer.
(More on this very soon 👀)

🪰 Bot flies

✅ Scrape now, treat later

Right now:
• remove eggs from the coat
• reduce ingestion risk
• avoid unnecessary chemical treatment

👉 Treatment comes after the first frost, when it actually makes sense.

🐴 One horse ≠ whole herd decisions

Even horses living together can have:
• different parasite burdens
• different immunity
• different needs

Blanket worming feels proactive — but it’s often unnecessary.

✅ This still counts as doing something

Choosing to:
• test instead of guessing
• scrape instead of dosing
• wait until treatment actually makes sense

👉 isn’t neglect — it’s intentional parasite control.

You’re not behind.
You’re not “doing nothing”.
You’re matching the action to the parasite.

🧠 The big picture

Good parasite control isn’t “worm everything”.

It’s:
• test where testing works
• scrape where scraping works
• treat when treatment is justified

That’s how you protect:
• your horse’s gut health
• the effectiveness of wormers
• and your own peace of mind

Smarter, not harder 🐴✨

👉 What to do next

If you’re unsure where your horses sit right now:
• start with a faecal egg count
• consider a tapeworm test if appropriate
• keep scraping bot eggs
• and watch symptoms — not the calendar

Clear information leads to calmer decisions.

28/01/2026

🪰 Bot flies & worming — timing matters

Seeing bot fly eggs on your horse can be confronting — those little yellow dots make people want to act fast. That’s completely understandable.

But here’s the important bit 👇
Bot eggs on the coat don’t tell us what’s happening inside the horse.

🔹 Bot eggs = flies have laid eggs
🔹 They do not indicate worm burden
🔹 Worming at this stage doesn’t remove the eggs

So what’s best practice?

🟢 Right now
• Physically remove the eggs
• This actually prevents infection

✨ Mal’s secret tip:
A simple hair lice comb works surprisingly well for removing bot eggs — cheap, effective, and much kinder than aggressive scraping.

Other options that also work well include:
• Bot knives
• Pumice stones
• Bot blocks / grooming stones
• Careful grooming with a firm curry or blade

(Whatever you use, go gently — the goal is egg removal, not skin irritation.)

🟢 Worming for bots
• Most effective after the first frost (or once bot fly activity has stopped)

❄️ Why the first frost matters:
• Frost kills off the adult bot flies
• No adults = no new eggs being laid
• Any bot larvae present are now inside the horse
• This is when ivermectin is actually effective

Worming before this point doesn’t prevent reinfestation — flies are still active and will simply lay more eggs.

🟢 Other worms
• Strongyles / roundworms → best managed using a faecal egg count
• Tapeworm → ideally treated based on testing, not routine worming

✨ Important reassurance:
Once bot eggs are removed from the horse, they’re no longer a risk. Bot eggs must be licked or ingested by the horse to continue their lifecycle. If they hatch off the horse, they cannot survive or complete their lifecycle and will die off.

Worming just because eggs are visible often leads to unnecessary treatments — which doesn’t benefit the horse and contributes to wormer resistance.

✨ In short:
• Eggs ≠ internal burden
• Scrape now
• Treat bots once flies are gone
• Test where possible

If you’d like to take the guesswork out of worming, faecal egg counts and tapeworm testing can help guide smarter treatment decisions.
Samples can be dropped off locally or posted — Mal’s Equine Worm Egg Counts 🧪🐴

28/01/2026

💉 Why we don’t recommend sharing wormer tubes between horses

This came up as a really good question during a recent presentation, so I wanted to explain the reasoning behind the advice.

It’s easy to think:
👉 “My horses live together and share water troughs anyway. What’s the difference?”

In a closed herd (horses that live together and don’t regularly mix with outside horses), that’s a fair question. From a biosecurity point of view alone, the risk of sharing a wormer tube between those horses is actually quite low.

The difference is direct vs passive transfer:
• A water trough is a passive, diluted exposure
• A wormer nozzle is direct mouth-to-mouth contact, transferring saliva straight from one horse to the next

This becomes more important when:
• Horses are from different properties
• Horses are young, stressed, or immunocompromised
• There is known or suspected illness on a property

👉 That said, the main reason sharing wormer tubes is discouraged is dose accuracy.

Once a tube has been partially used, it becomes much easier to:
• Underdose the next horse
• Lose paste on lips
• Misjudge weight settings

Underdosing is one of the biggest drivers of wormer resistance.

Product labels are written for the broadest range of situations — including mixed groups, agistment, and unknown health status — which is why the general advice is one horse, one tube.

In real-world situations — especially with miniatures or small ponies living together — owners sometimes do use one tube across multiple horses by weight. If you choose to do this, risk can be reduced by:
• Using accurate weights
• Dosing each horse carefully and individually
• Avoiding underdosing
• Wiping the nozzle between horses

Bottom line: correct dosing matters more than whether the tube itself is shared.

As always, different situations call for different approaches — this post is about understanding risk, not telling people what they must do.

19/01/2026

🐴 The 80:20 Rule of Worming

👉 80% of worm eggs come from just 20% of horses.

Yep. Really. 🤯

That means:
Most horses are low shedders
and don’t need frequent worming.

So what’s the smarter approach? 🤷‍♀️

Here’s what actually makes sense 👇
💩 Test first with a faecal egg count
🎯 Identify the higher shedders
💊 Treat only the horses that need it

✨ The result?
When you only worm the horses that actually need treatment 👇
The benefits are:
• Less unnecessary worming
• Healthier gut microbiomes
• Slower development of wormer resistance
• More effective parasite control

At Mal’s Equine, I offer simple, affordable
faecal egg counts to take the guesswork out of worming 💚

Smarter worming starts with faecal egg counts.

(EPG values shown are examples for illustration.)
(EPG = eggs per gram — a measure of worm burden.)

08/01/2026

🐴💊 Best Time to Worm Your Horse — Practical Tips That Put Welfare First 🕒✨

When it comes to worming, the exact time of day doesn’t change how effective the wormer is 💡
But choosing a practical time can make a big difference for monitoring, safety, and peace of mind 💚

✅ Morning + Weekday = A Great Combo
Worming in the morning 🌅 gives you daylight hours to keep an eye on your horse afterwards 👀
Some horses — especially those with higher worm burdens or unknown histories — can feel a bit off or even show signs of colic as worms die off 💩⚠️

Choosing a weekday 📅 means your regular vet is more likely to be available if you need advice or support 🩺 — rather than relying on after-hours care 🌙💸

👀 After worming, keep an eye on:
🍽️ appetite & drinking
💩 manure output
🐎 behaviour, comfort & attitude

💛 Support the gut before & after
Wormers don’t just affect worms — they can temporarily disrupt the gut environment too 🦠
Many owners choose to use a pre- or probiotic supplement 🧴 starting a few days before worming and continuing for a few days after to help support digestion and comfort 💛

📊 Targeted worming = smarter worming
Using faecal egg counts 🔬 allows worming to be tailored to the individual horse 🐴
This helps:
✔️ avoid unnecessary worming
✔️ reduce stress on the gut
✔️ slow wormer resistance

✨ Bottom line:
Worm when you can be present, calm, and observant 🧡
Not rushed, not late at night, and not when you can’t easily check on your horse ⏰

06/01/2026

💩 Talking about poo… and why it matters! 🐴

I’ve had the absolute pleasure of spending time over the past few weeks doing presentations at Lilydale District Pony Club and Tasmanian Pony & Riding Club, and I just wanted to say a huge thank you to both clubs for the support, enthusiasm, and warm welcome.

From curious younger riders asking all the questions, to older riders diving into the science behind targeted worm control, it was so rewarding to see how engaged everyone was. Nothing beats kids heading home and quizzing their parents about worm eggs and testing 😄 — that’s when you know the learning has really stuck.

I’m also incredibly grateful for the encouragement from organisers and members to bring samples along — the response was amazing and really showed how keen people are to learn more about what’s going on inside their horses.

And a special mention to my little helper Eli, who came along and had the best time being part of it all 🥰 Science, horses, microscopes and poo… what more could you want?

Thank you again to both clubs for the opportunity and for championing smart, strategic, science-based worm control. It was a pleasure 💚

24/12/2025

As we head into Christmas, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you 💛

I’m constantly reminded how lucky I am to have such supportive clients behind this business, and I’m truly so grateful for every bit of trust, encouragement, and support, whether you’ve been with me from the beginning or have joined along the way.

To those who return season after season, and to those who are new and have trusted me with their horses this year, thank you. Your support, likes, comments, and kind words genuinely mean the world when you’re building something from the ground up, and it never goes unnoticed.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe, happy holiday season with your horses 🎄🐴

09/12/2025

✨ Just a little reminder that I’m here if your herd needs a FEC check.

With the weather warming up and pastures changing, it’s a great time to see what your horses are carrying — or not carrying! 🐴🌱

I’m always happy to help, whether it’s a one-off test or working out what’s happening with those horses who tend to creep up seasonally.
Thank you so much to everyone who continues to support my little business — it truly means the world. 💛

FECs are just $15.
Feel free to message anytime if you need me! 😊

23/11/2025

21/11/2025

🐴Should you rotate wormers to stop resistance?

Spoiler: Nope. That old advice has been quietly retired — and for good reason.

Let’s break it down in normal, horse-owner language… not science-jargon 😄

🧡 Why people used to rotate wormers

For years, we were all told:

“Use a different wormer every time so the worms don’t get used to it.”

It sounded logical enough…
Like swapping shampoos so your hair doesn’t “get used to it.”

But worms don’t have hair.
They have genes.
And switching chemicals didn’t confuse them — it trained them.

🐛 What actually happened (the oops moment)

Horses were being treated every 6–8 weeks like clockwork, rotating through:

Benzimidazoles (white paste wormers)
Pyrantel
Ivermectin / Moxidectin

And the worms basically went:

“Oh cool, a new challenge! Let’s evolve!”

So instead of stopping resistance, rotation did the opposite:

➡️ It helped worms become resistant to ALL the wormers.
Faster.

Today:

White paste wormers? Mostly useless.

Pyrantel? Half the time useless.

Even ivermectin and moxidectin are starting to show resistance on some farms.

We ended up with superworms.
Like Marvel villains, but tiny and living in poo.

🧪 Why rotating now makes even less sense

There’s barely anything left to rotate between.
It’s like being told to alternate between three snacks, except two are empty packets and the third one is running low.

Rotating today looks like:

Wormer A: doesn’t work

Wormer B: kind of works

Wormer C: works (but not if we overuse it)

So why rotate?
Exactly.

🌱 The new approach (and it actually works!)

Here’s the modern parasite-control plan — backed by every equine vet and parasitologist worldwide:

⭐ 1. Do a Faecal Egg Count (FEC) first

This tells you if your horse actually needs worming.
Most adult horses don’t need it nearly as often as we think.

⭐ 2. Treat only the horses that need it

Some horses naturally shed lots of eggs.
Some shed hardly any.
Blanket worming = wasted chemicals + more resistance.

⭐ 3. Use the product that still works on YOUR property

A FEC Reduction Test (FECRT) tells you exactly which wormers are effective.
If one doesn’t work — don’t use it again.
Simple.

⭐ 4. Save the good chemicals by using them smartly

The fewer unnecessary wormers we use, the longer they keep working.

🐴 The bottom line

Rotating wormers is old-school advice from decades ago.

✔️ It sounded good
❌ It didn’t work
❌ It helped create resistant worms
✔️ We now know better

Modern parasite control is smarter, cheaper, safer, and WAY better for your horse’s health.

💚 Want help figuring out what works on your horses?

This is literally what I do!

FECs to see who actually needs treating

FECRT testing to find out which wormers still work on your property

No rotation needed — just science

Message me to start the process on 0438 572 887