Anyone with a horse that has IN THE PAST had a very high worm burden....

A

AshTay

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Reason I ask is this....

My horse struggles to keep weight on, always looks a bit tucked up and is generally a poor doer. He eats everything I put in front of him and his coat is glossy and he's good tempered (we don't believe he has ulcers).

I recently had an FEC done on him and it was medium (700). He was last wormed in the autumn. He has shared a field with my other horse who's FEC came back as <50 (very low/no eggs seen).

I understand that this sort of variation in worm egg burden amongst horses on the same grazing is commonplace and could be in part driven by the tendency of some horses to graze closer to poo than others. Or could be genetic.

But I was wondering if maybe he'd had a high worm burden in the past and it had left him susceptible to higher burdens and weight loss, maybe due to lasting internal damage.

So does anyone have a horse that they know has had a heavy infestation in the past and do you notice an increase in the FEC in this horse compared to others?

p.s. I know this is far from scientific - I was just curious...
 
When In got my young horse at 3yrs old. her worm count in august was 1350.
She grazes with one other horse who has a low worm count and grazing is poopicked every day. her last few worm counts - dec and may - have been <50
 
fidleyspromise said:
When In got my young horse at 3yrs old. her worm count in august was 1350.
She grazes with one other horse who has a low worm count and grazing is poopicked every day. her last few worm counts - dec and may - have been <50
Click to expand...

Thanks, fidleyspromise! How is your mare weight-wise? Did you notice a physical change when you cleared her worm burden?
 
Nope.
My horse died of colic from past worm damage having scarred her insides and weakened her digestive system yet with me her worm count was a big fat 0!
 
In a field of grazing sheep I was told by our vet that 10% of the sheep carry 99% of the worms. Meaning that some animals in a flock (herd) are just more susceptable and have less natural resistance than others, this could be genetics, wormer resistance or just something that has naturally occured as they were growing.
 
One of my horses had a heavy worm burden when I bought him (to the point he looked like a cruelty case). I've not had any problems with him since, he always stays pretty slim but thats his type anyway. He shares with 2 other horses and all their worm counts are always low <50 (and I don't worm them all the time, it depends on their worm count).
 
Yes, I have a cob that was rescued aged 3 with such a bad worm infestation/damage and starvation that the vet said he and a 3 yr old mare couldn't survive and needed to be PTS.
However their (ILPH) rescuer decided to give them some time to recover and nursed them back to health.
That was 9 years ago and they are both in good health, always wormed regularly, never have colic or problems keeping weight on. Worm counts are always low. 18 months after being rescued, my lad won a Coloured horse championship at a large local show and has never looked back.
The young mare is now a much loved family horse in a long term home.

Like everything, not all horses are the same, but it is possible to go on to a normal life.
 
My old horse was neglected when he was younger (over 10 years ago now), he went out on loan (before I owned him) to someone who didn't worm him, didn't feed properly etc. He suffered quite bad worm damage as a result and now can't tolerate any starchy foods or sugar, if fed them he either gets the runs or ties up, so he is on a special diet low in these things. He is a poor doer and I have to feed him lots of oil and fibre to keep weight on him and avoid any rich foods as these just go straight through him. He suffered from general weakness which quite often made him lame in the past though this is more due to not being fed properly. He is very sensitive to any change in diet and has had urticaria in the past. His worm counts always come back clear now so I just worm for tapes, bots and encysted small reds in the winter as these aren't covered by the count.
 
Thanks everyone! That's really interesting.

diamondrockharvey - he was wormed for tapeworm in autumn and will be done again in April. Is there reason to think that this wouldn't be enough? (i.e. are some tapeworms resistant?).
 
Paint it Lucky said:
My old horse was neglected when he was younger (over 10 years ago now), he went out on loan (before I owned him) to someone who didn't worm him, didn't feed properly etc. He suffered quite bad worm damage as a result and now can't tolerate any starchy foods or sugar, if fed them he either gets the runs or ties up, so he is on a special diet low in these things. He is a poor doer and I have to feed him lots of oil and fibre to keep weight on him and avoid any rich foods as these just go straight through him. He suffered from general weakness which quite often made him lame in the past though this is more due to not being fed properly. He is very sensitive to any change in diet and has had urticaria in the past. His worm counts always come back clear now so I just worm for tapes, bots and encysted small reds in the winter as these aren't covered by the count.
Click to expand...

I feed my boy on a cereal-free, low starch diet (calories all from fibre and oil). One of the reasons I did this was he was a stresshead so I took him off the cool mix he was on when I got him and try to keep his weight on with fibre-based feed. He has chilled out a lot but this could also be due to him settling down and growing up.

He is very weak in his musculature. So much so that I have to rough him off over winter as I don't have the time with the dark evenings to work him enough to get the muscle on him to keep him confortable.
 
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