Liver Fluke!?

[ChelseaGostomska]

Can anyone tell me much about liver fluke ? My vet suspects my horse has it. He is now at level 5 on the liver damage scale and on a scan showed 3 nodules in the liver.

He has had the works.... gastroscope, 2x liver biopsies, all internal organs scanned, and bloods! Bloods showing high inflammation and raised enzymes .

He is at Liphook one of the leading veterinary hospitals which specialise in liver disease but they don’t seem to be able to provide a definitive diagnosis...

Can my horse now pass on liver fluke to others if he is sharing a field?

Any Liver Fluke advice would be great.

(He is coming home to a new yard this weekend and has started steroids and treatment for Fluke) his old yard was an old dairy farm 50 odd years ago

 

[D66]

Liver fluke is spread by snails, the medicine to get rid of it is licensed for sheep (and cattle I think) though vets can and do give it to horses. By the time liver damage is showing symptoms the organ is already badly damaged. As the treatment is one oral dose and costs the same as the test if you and your vet think your horse is at risk just treat.

Good Luck with your horse.

 

[Pinkvboots]

Sorry to hear your horse has this I have no advice I am afraid but just wanted to say I hope they can get him better for you.

 

[SEL]

Westgate tested for me when I was having ongoing liver problems. Mine was negative but if you go onto the FB liver forum you should find a lady who did have to treat her horse for fluke - or I can try and tag her into a post for you.

 

[bluehorse]

Sorry to hear your horse is unwell. Is your old field near a river or very wet and boggy? The liver fluke infect a type of water snail and grazing animals ingest the snails and the fluke then develop in the host animal. Without the snail the life cycle can’t be supported. If your new yard is on well drained land I don’t think other horses could be infected. It’s easy to treat with a sheep treatment called tribex. Its not licensed for horses but vets will prescribe it. It’s very cheap and you can give it yourself (it’s a milky type liquid, I syringed in into mine). Hope your horse gets better soon.

 

[Boulty]

If you're suspecting fluke Liverpool do an ELISA test which detects more positive horses than the faecal test (which can throw false negatives as the horses don't shed all that many eggs compared to sheep for example & the eggs are only shed at certain times of the year). I emailed Paul Gilmore whose email address is on the study they did to develop said test for the info & he sent me the pricelist plus a published article on the subject. My horse currently has raised liver enzymes (although not as badly as yours *touchwood*) & had previously grazed with sheep on land by a river hence me suspecting it. Turned out mine is negative so we never treated him for it but I think it's sheep wormer that your vet would have to prescribe (Mine had a host of other issues & a tendency towards reacting to things which is why I didn't want to treat him for it unless he was positive).

A friend of mine has a horse who had liver problems not long after she bought him that weren't improving despite them trying all usual treatments. Once they treated for fluke he did then get better & he's been totally normal for several years now. (She's why I actually vaguely knew about it & thought to test for it in the first place)

 

[Orangehorse]

Long time ago mine had suspected Liver Fluke, turned out with sheep on typically flukey ground. Vet dosed him with cattle/sheep wormer which isn't licensed for horses! Took him away from the sheep and he was fine. Very, very common in cattle and sheep despite receiving wormer for it.

 

[fairyclare]

No help at all as the horse is in the best possible place. But, mine had suspected liver fluke, after a lot of tests and undiagnosed liver issues/pain, we saw lovely Donna Blinman and she got to the bottom of it - blocked bile ducts. Within 3 days the mare was a changed horse,