Target this important age group by working with your veterinarian to time treatment and avoid perpetuating drug-resistant parasites.

Deworming foals and young horses can be a bit of a Catch-22: They are more vulnerable to internal parasite infection than adult horses; however, aggressive deworming increases the risk of developing drug-resistant parasite populations. To reach a happy medium, owners should consider less-intensive deworming of this age group.

"Traditionally, we started deworming early, often less than a month of age, and repeated the treatments as often as monthly or bimonthly during the first year of life," explains Craig Reinemeyer, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVM, president of East Tennessee Clinical Research Inc., in Rockwood. "In hindsight, this was a bad idea."

In this article we will address good strategies for deworming youngsters, from foals to weanlings and beyond

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