Pinworm

[Widgeon]

Hi all, I suspect my horse may well have pinworm (world's itchiest bum) and the vet has advised I wash it every day and apply Vaseline. That's a lot of Vaseline (!) so I could do with a cheaper alternative. Local agricultural store suggested udder cream - any thoughts on that? Or is a big tub of unbranded petroleum jelly from Amazon the best way to go? I don't like Amazon and would rather use a local shop but obviously I need to buy something that will be appropriate for the job. Thanks very much. Any experiences with getting rid of pinworm would also be interesting to hear.

 

[Gloi]

Local pound shop type shop often have big tubs of petroleum jelly.

 

[BeckyFlowers]

Bad luck with pinworm, they are an absolute pain to get rid of - I know from experience. As you have mentioned, you will need to bum-wipe and vaseline religiously and worm appropriately. Understanding the life cycle of the worm will help you plan your management, but if in doubt get worming advice from your vet.

Once you have got rid of them, don't rest on your laurels - they will probably come back again (I have found this out the hard way). I take worming advice from my vet and interrupt the life cycle of the worm to keep them at bay. I also poo pick daily (spring summer and early autumn), but as we're going into the winter this may not be practical for you. Mine is in herd turnout over winter so I don't poo pick then.

There are many threads on H&H forum about managing pinworm - check them out as I have found them to be really helpful, especially re worming. Good luck!

 

[hopscotch bandit]

Hi all, I suspect my horse may well have pinworm (world's itchiest bum) and the vet has advised I wash it every day and apply Vaseline. That's a lot of Vaseline (!) so I could do with a cheaper alternative. Local agricultural store suggested udder cream - any thoughts on that? Or is a big tub of unbranded petroleum jelly from Amazon the best way to go? I don't like Amazon and would rather use a local shop but obviously I need to buy something that will be appropriate for the job. Thanks very much. Any experiences with getting rid of pinworm would also be interesting to hear.

My friends horse had pinworm and he was given three cycles of pinworm wash followed by a 'shampoo' called selenium something or other, that you left on the skin anus and tail. He also had three lots of wormers, one each cycle up the bum and from memory a five day one orally. She reckoned he'd picked them up from the vets as he was there 2 days before he exhibited symptoms and five days after moving yards although she later found out the previous horse who had been in both her stable and paddock had had pinworm so not sure. Older horses are more prone, especially if they become stressed. Her horse certainly isn't the stressy type, you could land him on the moon and he'd be happy as long as he had a haynet, and his second home is the vets so used to that too! Hence the nickname 'money pit'. Which wasn't helped by the cost of all the treatment. This was in Winter 2016/17. Took a good four months to go. Not come back since.

If you give an oral wormer by the time its gets to its final destination of the bit of intestine right before the anus (where the female pinworms live that lay the eggs that irritate your horse) the wormer has lost its strength. Therefore by targeting the anus with wormer it kills them more effectively.

At dusk you can see the female come out of the anus to lay her eggs around the opening. She looks just like a beansprout. She lays them in a yellowish white sticky goo. And its that that irritates the horse and makes it rub. Then she goes back into the warm to hide.

Bloody nightmare to eradicate. You need to wipe down your stablewalls wirh Jeyes or similar and clean your fillet strings on your rugs with a dilution of the same. Also anything your horse places her bum on like the tailgate of your trailer or lorry side, fence post, stable door, etc, etc. Friends horses fellow liveries were worried about their horses getting it from the horse walker partitions but the vet said you'd have more chance of winning the lottery than them catching anything through contact like that.