For decades, horse owners followed the same calendar: rotate dewormers every few weeks, all season, every horse, whether they needed it or not. We now know that blanket approach is exactly what created widespread dewormer resistance. Horsemen's Lab offers a smarter path. Their affordable, mail-in fecal egg count testing tells you which horses are actually shedding parasite eggs, so you treat based on evidence instead of a guess.
Every time you deworm a horse that does not need it, you give parasites another chance to develop resistance to the few products we have left. As equine parasitologist Martin Nielsen, DVM, PhD, puts it, owners who skip egg counts can carry a false sense of security, assuming their dewormer is working when they have no way of knowing. A fecal egg count removes the guesswork. It reveals each horse's real parasite burden, so high-shedders get treated, low-shedders are left alone, and your dewormers stay effective for years to come.
The process is built for busy barns. Order a kit and it arrives with a sturdy sample container, a sealed plastic bag, simple collection instructions, and a prepaid, self-addressed envelope. Collect a small fresh manure sample from your horse, seal it, and drop it in the mail. At the lab, every sample is read with the McMasters test, the standard fecal egg count method, accurate down to 25 eggs per gram. Your results come back by email with a clear picture of whether your horse needs to be dewormed and how heavily it is shedding.
Horsemen's Lab was founded in 1993 by Dr. John Byrd, a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine who was selected for the first large-animal medical residency at the University of Florida and practiced equine medicine for thirteen years. That hands-on background shapes the whole service. Testing starts at a low per-horse price, and the more counts you run, the less you pay per horse, so monitoring an entire barn stays practical. Multi-horse owners can even earn a one-on-one phone consultation with Dr. Byrd to build a worm-control plan around their actual results.
A single standard equine fecal egg count is $26. Order two to five kits and the price drops to $23 each; six or more is $21 each. Every price includes postage both ways, the collection kit, sample processing and your results.
Each kit contains a sturdy sample container, a sealed plastic bag, a small scoop, instructions and a prepaid self-addressed return envelope, so postage is covered in both directions.
Results are emailed directly to you. If you do not have an email address on file, your results are mailed back through USPS instead.
Horsemen's Laboratory recommends rechecking most horses every three months and automatically sends repeat containers on that schedule, unless there is a change in the horse's environment that calls for testing sooner.
The standard stool examination accurately identifies adult roundworms and strongyles, which cause most parasite problems in horses. Bots and pinworms do not reliably appear in a stool sample, and tapeworms are hard to detect this way, so a separate $60 tapeworm kit is offered for owners who want that added screen.
No dewormer on the market is fully broad-spectrum anymore, and many parasites have developed resistance. Without a count you cannot tell whether a product is working or whether you are breeding resistant worms. Testing replaces guesswork with a measured number you can act on.
Run a follow-up count after treatment. If the egg count does not drop by at least 90 percent, it indicates either that the worms were not sensitive to that dewormer or that the horse did not receive an adequate dose, both of which you need to know before treating again.
Yes. Orders of twenty or more samples earn one free sample for every ten ordered, and buying ten or more counts at one time includes a full year of consultation on your horses' worm-control program, a $100 value.
About this listing: Product and service details on this page, including any results described, are provided by Horsemen's Lab. InfoHorse.com verifies the business behind every listing — for decisions about your horse's health, talk with your veterinarian.
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