Mega dose of Panacur Equine Guard prescribed by vet... any advice please?

[Cas202]

Hi,

My new Italian vet said to give my 29 yr old, very underweight mini Shetland, a course of Panacur Equine Guard in case of worm resistance to the product I had been using. Panacur instruction sheet said 5ml per 65 kg bodyweight which my pony is 93 kg so I gave him 7.5ml for 5 days.
When I said what dose I had given to him the vet said that was far too low and wants me to wait two weeks and then give 30 ml per day for five days. He then came down to 20 ml per day when I highlighted the ponies weight only being 93kg but I still feel scared to give him the 20 ml. The product is supposed to have a wide safety margin for overdose but I was wondering if anyone has any experience of giving over double the amount of this wormer and that it's ok?

My previous vet thought he had IBD which makes me extra concerned to give more wormer than needed. Current vet took bloods and said the pony is losing protein and wants to try this first saying it might be a tumour otherwise.

 

[honetpot]

Its a few years ago but I bought a foal riddled with worms, and it was wormed every two weeks with a régime of wormers under the advice of a vet from the local vet school, starting with Panacur and others.
I think Fenbendazole has a large margin for overdose. I would go on the internet, and look at the medical data sheet, to reassure your self, and look at the signs of toxicity. I always over dose with wormers because even with a weigh tape its an estimate.

 

[paddy555]

does the 29 yo have cushings

ETA are you in the UK?

 

[Nari]

I wouldn't be willing to overdose at that rate for 5 days, vet advice or no vet advice.

What tests have been run and when?

 

[Cas202]

Its a few years ago but I bought a foal riddled with worms, and it was wormed every two weeks with a régime of wormers under the advice of a vet from the local vet school, starting with Panacur and others.
I think Fenbendazole has a large margin for overdose. I would go on the internet, and look at the medical data sheet, to reassure your self, and look at the signs of toxicity. I always over dose with wormers because even with a weigh tape its an estimate.

That's helpful thanks, I've had a look at the Noah compendium data sheet and it says under 'Overdose' that Benzimazoles have a wide margin of safety but not what the margins are.

 

[Cas202]

does the 29 yo have cushings

ETA are you in the UK?

Hi, yes and he's been on Prascend for a good ten years now, in the UK.

 

[Cas202]

I wouldn't be willing to overdose at that rate for 5 days, vet advice or no vet advice.

What tests have been run and when?

Current vet took bloods a couple of weeks back and only said about the protein being lost. Previous vet didn't think bloods were necessary and did worm egg counts & tape worm test which were negative. So I'm kind of hoping these egg counts are unreliable and the Panacur will work. A big problem with my equine vets is that new vets continually come and go and are mostly foreign. Sorry for any confusion when I said Italian vet.

 

[Nari]

So FECs were negative? That's saying minimal to no eggs found so why the need for such heavy worming? I'd get another count done to check the first one but if that also comes back low or negative I wouldn't be worming. I think there is also a way of testing for encysteds now too so maybe worth asking your vet about that.

 

[Cas202]

So FECs were negative? That's saying minimal to no eggs found so why the need for such heavy worming? I'd get another count done to check the first one but if that also comes back low or negative I wouldn't be worming. I think there is also a way of testing for encysteds now too so maybe worth asking your vet about that.

This vet didn't agree that the previous vet had done the FECs when the mini had a short bout of the runs. I've just been online trying to update myself on worming and just read about the encysted worm test so yes, that does seem the better idea to ask the vet about that before giving more wormer. I'm worried now if I've been too relaxed about worming the ponies. As they always had clear FEC's, I have only given them Equest Pramox at the beginning of December for the last three years. The other Shetland looks fine but I lost my Welsh mare earlier this year. She had a liver infection that wasn't responding well to the antibiotics, then when I gave her the precautionary fluke medicine she really went downhill and was pts hours later. Really awful.