Crossroads Alternative Therapy, LLC

10/31/2025

Don’t forget you can save with my coupon code JAMIEDICKSON15 if you are looking to purchase Summit Animal Health supplements and Bode Health for human supplements.

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Bode Health

10/07/2025

Worth a thought 🤷‍♀️

09/07/2025

😂😂😂😂 mine probably consume more https://www.facebook.com/share/178me4Gm3x/?mibextid=wwXIfr

05/05/2025

Happy May 4th 🤠🐴

03/18/2025

🔬Breaking Down New Recommendations for Equine Deworming 🪱

Deworming horses is a practice that seems to constantly evolve – the more we learn, the more recommendations change to ensure we are making the best decisions for our horses and the industry as a whole, and sometimes it can feel hard to keep up! We used to recommend rotating dewormers every 2 to 3 months to combat parasites, however, I hope by now, the only thing you rotate are your pastures (sorry – a little equine science humor). Rather, you should be utilizing targeted deworming for your mature horses. This means you are performing f***l egg counts to (1) identify your high shedders and (2) performing f***l egg count reduction tests on your herd to determine which dewormers are still effective. So let’s dive into how targeted deworming would work with your horses.

I want to make sure everyone is aware that through deworming, you will NEVER get rid of all the parasites – and that is not one of the goals of deworming. Rather, we want to minimize the risk of parasitic disease and delay further development of anthelmintic (dewormer) resistance. To accomplish these goals, we want to target parasites that are often associated with parasitic disease (primarily strongyles and tapeworms), provide more frequent dewormings to high shedders which contribute to environmental contamination, and only use dewormers that are effective for our herd.

However, not all horses are created equal and some variables can impact deworming recommendations such as age (see my previous post about deworming young horses), geographical region/climate, shedding level, and access to green grass. This is because many of our concerning parasites are transmitted when horses are on pasture, and we want to target them during periods of high transmission when they are more readily spread.

All horses should receive one to two baseline treatments of a macrocyclic lactone (ivermectin or moxidectin). Current recommendations are to deworm in the spring and once horses are removed from pasture going into winter. If you do not remove your horse from pasture, you can just time these for the spring and fall.

For high strongyle shedders (>500 eggs per gram), additional dewormings can be done during periods of higher transmission. This varies by geographical region and a study predicted the successful development of strongyles eggs for six different locations (Leathwick et al., 2015). This model suggests colder northern climates have a short window of transmission during the summer months. This window becomes larger as we move south to warmer climates until we reach southern states where transmission can be observed throughout the entire year. An exception here is arid states in the southwest (which I will discuss in a moment). If you want to see the graphs detailing these transmission windows, take a look at the 2024 AAEP Internal Parasite Guidelines.

Based on these findings, I would choose to deworm high shedders in colder climates during the summer months when transmission is observed. In comparison, high shedders in southern states may also benefit from an additional deworming in the winter when it is more mild. These recommendations could change based on the weather conditions observed each year.

I do want to specifically address arid regions of the United States (primarily in the southwest (including Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico). When horses are located here and are not kept on green pastures, small strongyles and tapeworms are unlikely to require the primary attention in parasite control programs. As a result, the current recommendation for horses without pasture residing in these regions is to perform regular f***l egg counts to determine the necessary level of anthelmintic intervention required (Ramey and Nielsen, 2019).

So hopefully these recommendations help clear things up as to how to deworm! I still continuously see inaccurate and outdated information on this topic so it is important to stay educated for the sake of our horses!

Cheers!
Dr. DeBoer

Leathwick DM, Donecker JM, Nielsen MK. A model for the dynamics of the free-living stages of equine cyathostomins. Veterinary Parasitology. 2015 Apr 30;209(3-4):210-20.

Ramey DW, Nielsen MK. Limited strongyle parasite occurrence in horses kept in an arid environment. Equine Veterinary Education. 2020 Aug;32:37-40.

01/27/2025

Couldn’t agree with this more…after having dealt with low heals on the back end of one of my own personal horses I have seen some of the exact same issues effect him. Please pay attention to your horses heals.

Oftentimes, we put a lot of onus on the balance of the front feet whilst disregarding that the horse is a quadruped with hind feet that require attention too.

The fallacy here is that if your horse's hind hoof balance is poor, i.e. they have low heels or negative plantar angles, they're going to be more inclined to overload their forehand to reduce the loading through the hinds.

It is very, very rare that I see a horse with good hind hoof morphology.

It is incredibly common that I see horses with indicators of negative plantar angle combined with at least two (but usually a handful) of the following:

- Chronic lumbar discomfort

- Chronic sacroiliac discomfort

- Atrophied gluteal muscles

- Atrophied quadriceps muscles

- Effusion around the stifles

- Diagnosis of hock arthritis

- Diagnosis of hind suspensory ligament desmitis (+/- recommendation for fasciotomy & neurectomy)

- Reactivity to palpation over proximal suspensory branches

- Reactivity to palpation over deep digital flexor tendon as it inserts into the hoof capsule

- Difficulty lifting hind legs.

What is even more farcical is that we bodywork, we medicate, we operate, we bash over the head with movement intervention...
.. And we are still SO slow to intervene with the feet??

And yet I have found that if you intervene with the hoof balance, you:

- Support greater muscular equilibrium: I find horses literally walk symmetrical muscle mass on without the need for an exercise plan!

- Restore joint range of motion, which improves joint comfort and longevity

- Perhaps (or in my experience often) reduce the discomfort in the suspensories, support their healing and can avoid surgery(!)

- Find the elusive sensation of "push" from behind when riding your horse.

So with all this in mind... why are we still so slow to catch on and do it?

-

📸 the superficial dorsal myofascial chain which connects to the solar surface of the hind hoof.

You can see how if we lower the plantar angle, we traction all along the horse's topline, collecting discomfort as we go.

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For this month's webinar, I am delighted to be joined by the wonderful Beccy Smith of Holistic Equine, where she will be discussing what healthy hoof morphology really is, the factors that influence it and what you can do to help your horse.

Beccy is an Integrative Equine Podiatrist who truly considers the whole horse with respect to hoof health. Her keen eye and attention to detail is second to none in the hoofcare sphere and I cannot wait for this webinar!

NEW DATE: 28.01.2025 19:00 GMT

Recording available if you can't make the live ❤️✨️

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a blessed and safe holiday!

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween!

07/05/2024

06/12/2024

As our temps begin to heat up some things to keep in mind…

03/29/2024

Check your horse for ulcers using acupuncture points.

Did you know that you can palpate acupuncture points to tell if your horse has ulcers instead of having them scoped? Dr. Mark will show you how to do so below. 👇