Anyone with experience of worm damage?

[amzy]

I have a poorly horse at the moment with bad diarrhoea. The vet has been and taken blood and dung samples and the results show no worms eggs at present and the blood shows no sign of liver damage. They can only suggest at the moment that the gut could be damaged through past heavy worm burden but, apart from that, have no idea. My horse is slowly losing weight now and has no sparkle at all. The dung is very green and very smelly and even when we wash her she looks just as bad the next day. She's only 12 years, drinking and eating normally (quite poor grass and hay) and even changed paddocks to see if it was anything she had eaten in the field but it's made no difference. Any suggestions before the vet comes back next week?

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Try putting her on NAF 'Pink Powder' or another probiotic, Aloe Vera can also help (30mls per day). My mare has a very dodgey digestive system thatis upset by the slightest thing, but has been almost normal since being on Aloe Vera and PP.

 

[amzy]

I did ask the vet about a probiotic and she said that they don't really do much for a horse.

 

[Tia]

Is she a horse vet?

 

[amzy]

Funny that, she doesn't seem very knowlegable at all and I had to spell out the name of Eqvalan to her on the phone before she came!! Yet the practice does deal with farm animals and that's where my equine dentist/vet works.

 

[Tia]

Hmm...well as you may well know, I am a great big fat cynic of some she-vets.

[ QUOTE ]
Any suggestions before the vet comes back next week?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yep, don't ask the same vet out.

 

[Maggie2]

Actually though I seem to remember once I went to an evening of talks with some well respected senior vets from Liverpool, and it was said there that at the time in their opinion probiotics don't actually do anything, of course things may have changed since then it was about 7 years ago now.

 

[kerilli]

there is a black powder that you mix to a paste and squirt into their mouth to help stop scouring... Forgastrin, it's called. worth mentioning, i think.
carrots can also make some horses scour... my old lad (who i got the Forgastrin for) couldn't cope with more than 2-3 carrots per feed.
umm, i'd put the mare slowly onto better hay because if she's got diarrhoea then she's not getting much goodness out of anything going through her. i'd also give her about 1/2 scoop of bran in every feed, pretty sloppy/crumbly, because it's good for the gut (forget the mineral imbalance, that will take a very long time to have an effect, whereas scouring is an acute problem) - a very very good horse vet told me that, btw.

 

[mrsbloggett]

I had a pony a few years ago who started scouring when she was brought in from the summer grazing and started eating hay. She developed very runny poo & lost condition rapidly. She was diagnosed with intestinal worm damage following a bowel biopsy.

There is no treatment as such once the damage has occured, however it can be controlled with diet and codeine tablets.

It is important the pony has access to good quality fibre (meadow hay or forage replacements such as Hi-fi lite) as their digestion is already compromised. Avoid cereal feeds as they pass through the gut too quickly and the nutirents can not be absorbed (hence the weight loss). The use of high oil fibre feeds such as Nutri-Fi and / or a good quality feed balancer are good to maintain condition.

Codeine tablets are frequently prescribed for the 'runs' as the tablets slow down the bowel activity and allow the water to be reabsorbed through the intestinal wall, thus making the poos more solid.

I would definately check your vets area of expertise - change if you aren't satified with their treatment and/ or recommendations.

 

[vicm2509]

My horse had loosish dropping and they are always very smelly, and he is hard to keep weight on. The slightest thing upsets his stomach, we have found apples to be a very big problem. Also short very short grass as it is more acidic. I now also use pink powder since pibaldsparkle suggested it to me a while back, and we have had fantastic results. Even though they are still smelly, they are much firmer.

I would start with process of elimination as I thought for a while it was something he was eating in the field, until one night I put 3 apples in his tea. By morning half the droppings were solid, the other half were like water. Up until a few months before this I had been giving him apples daily, which is why they were always loose.

So I now keep him on pink powder, have a big notice on his door saying 'Do not give me ANY tit bits at all, they can make me ill'. I know exactly what he is eating and we have had no problems since.

Before I discovered what the cause was I also asked my vet, who suggested possible worm damage. I now think its just foods rich in acid, along with a sensitive digestive system.

 

[amzy]

Thank you everyone for your input. The vet has said today to keep her stabled 24/7 with only hay and water and they will come out on Wednesday or Thursday and give some anti-inflamatorys if there's no improvement. They said a biopsy was possible but can't always be reliable due to the intestine being so long. We think her belly has enlarged a little in the last few days and now hoping it's not a tumour. I also bought some probiotics and another type of wormer today so she will have been wormed for every worm possible.

 

[vicm2509]

I would do a worm count rather than keep worming her, that way you will know if she needs worming. But if it is worm damage then it may be something you will have to try to conrol as from what I understand old worm damage is something that cant be cured.

I really hope its nothing serious and I will keep my fingers crossed for you. I would really advise giving Pink Powder a go, its quite cheap (about £12 for 30 days supply) and has worked wonders for Baron. It contains probiotics and is also an all round vitamin and mineral supplement.