Liver fluke

JBM

JBM

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Anyone ever had liver fluke in horses? Experiences and what treated it
A horse that has been in with mine had it so getting the vet out but just wondering what the usual treatment is?
 
I had a donkey with it, my vet discussed options with the donkey sanctuary and they advised the sheep treatment, i had to sign a disclaimer as not licenced for equines. This was a few years ago but donkey made a full recovery, and he had been very ill.
 
You can send samples for testing to https://irishequinecentre.ie/equine-parasites-2-2/ but you will need your vet to prescribe unlicensed for equines drugs as @nagblagger says above. I don't think there is any treatment yet that is specific to horses.

So if you will need to get it prescribed by your vet anyway you may as well let them do the testing for you as well., although it will probably cost more than just sending a sample in yourself. Last time I had a fecal count done by them it was only about €20 each I think but that was a few years back now and I was sending a dozen or so different samples to them.
 
I might have to bring them all in
A bit tough to get poop samples in a 70 acre field
Easier to treat them then too
 
If you want to test for liver fluke you need to collect poo for a few days to maximise chance of catching a shed. If fluke is found they’d be dosed with a non-equine fluke drench off licence, your vet would tell you which one. I wouldn’t dose without sampling though.
 
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Two options are
Two poop tests 12 weeks apart
Or a blood test but Judy might kill the vet
 
My latest addition had been in with cattle on wet land, so I treated him for fluke as a precaution as it said in his history he'd been treated for it before. Tribex prescribed off licence by the vet. A dose two weeks apart
 
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As horses are not natural hosts of liver fluke they often have them without them reaching the egg shedding stage of their life cycle. twelve RDA horses/ponies got liver fluke after the beck overflowed its banks one year. No two had the same symptoms at the same time and the symptoms came and went. Treatment with triclobendazole cleared the problem.
 
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Years ago. Vet scratched his head, then went to the car and pulled out a sheep wormer. "This isn't licenced for horses" and proceeded to dose him.

Removed horse from the sheep pasture and he was fine.
 
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