Pinworms - and an unhelpful vet!

squiz22

squiz22

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Hi All,

Having discussed my horses issue with a number of people it would seem fitting that he is suffering from Pinworms. It seems to make sense to me, the constant itchiness, the creamy discharge around his anus in the morning and the not quite 100%ness. He is wormed regularly and his fields are poo picked by the yard daily. He is wormed with Equest and Pramox. His last wormer was Pramox which only kills the adult pin worm so that made even more sense that perhaps the larvae were surviving and hatching and we were having issues. Pin worms are ingested and the lack of frost also means that perhaps he had ingested them as they are still in the ground.. so.. I gave him an Equest (which is due for imminently anyway) which should kill both larvae and adult worms. That was given on sunday but he's still very itchy and he still had discharge on his bottom on wednesday. He has picked up in himself though.. a lot!! ;)

So.. I called the vet to discuss my options.. he was super patronizing as I explained my logical process of elimination at what I thought it was and my reasoning for it. He said he'd be really surprised if that was pin worms as there are no known issues with them resisting Pramox and equest and that if I give him too much wormer it can be toxic..? He then said it sounded like sweat itch which is soooo not what it seems to be.He's actually started lifted the tail up and is trying to rub is actual bum hole (sorry to be blunt!!!) on the wall! Anyway, he was really unhelpful and then suggested he came out at which point i said I don't see the point unless theres the discharge there and you can swab it. I then suggested I undertook the swab and drove it over to the vet as and when it happens again. His bootom is so sore that one night I gave it a clean with baby wipes and it was swollen and puffy the next morning.. it went down by 5pm but all the same he's not comfortable.

If anyone can shed any light on this i would be grateful. Also, I am questioning my worming.. I have often given a 5 day guard as an addition at this time of year and was going to do one again to try and sort this out having heard that sometimes you need to do a full 5 days to get it all the way through the system.. should i?

Thanks :)
 
Hi, we've chatted! Its me lizzie and I emailed you from the frustrated eventer email address.. frustrated sounds about right.. haha!


Anyway, I am biding my time until the discharge is there again and I was going to do the selotape test and send it to you?

I want to do a five day panacur but now I am worried.. is it all too soon after the Equest?
 
Interesting, I will share my story!

A few weeks back I noticed a creamy discharge from my boy's bottom. He was wormed on the Equest/Pramox program.

Got the vet out, did a worm count from piece of poo obtained from a rectal exam and although pinworms weren't the problem it turned out he did have a relatively high worm burden. The vet suggested it could well have been a mucus problem caused by the worms, leaking out of his bottom. It just seems although the Equest and Pramox weren't doing the trick for him.

She suggested we worm with Equimax and do another worm count in a month's time. Poo sample went off this morning so I will report back but the discharge is gone and he's put on a bit of weight in the meantime. :)

I have a picture of his leaky bum if you wanted to compare but it is pretty gross!
 
a_kind_of_christmas_magic said:
Interesting, I will share my story!

A few weeks back I noticed a creamy discharge from my boy's bottom. He was wormed on the Equest/Pramox program.

Got the vet out, did a worm count from piece of poo obtained from a rectal exam and although pinworms weren't the problem it turned out he did have a relatively high worm burden. The vet suggested it could well have been a mucus problem caused by the worms, leaking out of his bottom. It just seems although the Equest and Pramox weren't doing the trick for him.

She suggested we worm with Equimax and do another worm count in a month's time. Poo sample went off this morning so I will report back but the discharge is gone and he's put on a bit of weight in the meantime. :)

I have a picture of his leaky bum if you wanted to compare but it is pretty gross!
Click to expand...

When the vet came out was the evidence there? Mine doesn't have it everyday. I did have a worm count done but with droppings on the ground and nothing was found.

Yes, I'd really like to see it!! It may be really helpful!!
 
I did a worm count from a poo on the ground and that came back clear, hence the vet suggested one taken 'fresh from the oven'.

He had the discharge most days, I always cleaned it off and sometimes it came back overnight, sometimes a couple of days. I didn't clean it off the day before the vet was due so that she could see the evidence. :)
 
Ok, this sounds really fitting! Def keen for the piccie. I will get the vet out but I want them to take samples etc and not just have a look and not do a lot which is what happened last time. Yesterday he just suggested coming out and giving an injection for his swollen anus but it had gone down and I said he needed to find the cause..??
 
Borderreiver said:
Sorry I now realise that we have already been in touch so ignore me! Seriously though can you use a different vet?
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I have thought really highly of this practice. I didn't speak to the usual vet I deal with so I've left a message for the other vet to call me back. I'm going to wait and see what they say.. if not then yes I'll have to think of other options because he's so irritated.
 
Would you like me to PM the pic or put it on this thread? Thought it might also be worth mentioning my boy was rubbing his tail, hence I also thought pinworms but vet said it could well have just been this mucus irritating him where it dried on the skin.
 
a_kind_of_christmas_magic said:
Would you like me to PM the pic or put it on this thread? Thought it might also be worth mentioning my boy was rubbing his tail, hence I also thought pinworms but vet said it could well have just been this mucus irritating him where it dried on the skin.
Click to expand...

Either really. If you can put it on that thread that would be great. Yours sounds similar. I just want to find out what it is and sort it out.. ? Did he say anything about pramox and equest then and why he thought they weren't doing their job?
 
I went through this in Feb with mine. Seriously unhappy horse, constantly scratching his bum (not his tail) til he was raw, irritated and grumpy. Had worm counted fine the month before and was on a regular worming programme, in poo picked fields with other horses who hadnt been off the yard in at least 2months (we had lots of snow and nothing was getting out!). Spotted one of the blighters one morning and that was it, dose of panacur 5day guard and EVERYTHING that had come into contact with his back end (tail bandages, fillet strings, everything in his stable!) was disinfected to within an inch of its life. Result was one happy and pin worm free little event horse ;)

I should point out that he is quite an allergic little horse so I had originally put it down to a feed intolerance (as had swapped him to a different mix) but when I spotted the little wormy it all made sense! If your getting a discharge and the other symptoms I would be very tempted to give the 5 day guard a shot.
 
With my boy they said it could well have been a long term resistance, possibly even from his mum in utero. The stud farm used equest/pramox and his mum was a bit of a problem horse and hard to catch and therefore hard to worm. It wouldn't surprise me if she wasn't getting the full dose, therefore allowing the worms to build up resistance.

He's always been a star to worm so I know he's always had the full dosage, he's always looked well and shiny but just been a bit harder to keep weight on, hence I didn't think there was a problem with the wormer. I will always worm count with a fresh poo from now on!

Here's the pic:

298242_2531297842614_1258547275_3048078_256647930_n.jpg
 
saz5083 said:
I went through this in Feb with mine. Seriously unhappy horse, constantly scratching his bum (not his tail) til he was raw, irritated and grumpy. Had worm counted fine the month before and was on a regular worming programme, in poo picked fields with other horses who hadnt been off the yard in at least 2months (we had lots of snow and nothing was getting out!). Spotted one of the blighters one morning and that was it, dose of panacur 5day guard and EVERYTHING that had come into contact with his back end (tail bandages, fillet strings, everything in his stable!) was disinfected to within an inch of its life. Result was one happy and pin worm free little event horse ;)

I should point out that he is quite an allergic little horse so I had originally put it down to a feed intolerance (as had swapped him to a different mix) but when I spotted the little wormy it all made sense! If your getting a discharge and the other symptoms I would be very tempted to give the 5 day guard a shot.
Click to expand...

The other vet has just called me back and suggested strongid P? She has just agreed with the general comments and was much more helpful. I'll nip out in a sec and get some strongid p i think and she said i should see changes by the beginning of next week. If the mucas appears again we'll investigate further. Fingers crossed.
 
a_kind_of_christmas_magic said:
With my boy they said it could well have been a long term resistance, possibly even from his mum in utero. The stud farm used equest/pramox and his mum was a bit of a problem horse and hard to catch and therefore hard to worm. It wouldn't surprise me if she wasn't getting the full dose, therefore allowing the worms to build up resistance.

He's always been a star to worm so I know he's always had the full dosage, he's always looked well and shiny but just been a bit harder to keep weight on, hence I didn't think there was a problem with the wormer. I will always worm count with a fresh poo from now on!

Here's the pic:

298242_2531297842614_1258547275_3048078_256647930_n.jpg
Click to expand...


yes, thats it. Ok so mine doesn't have as much but it looks exactly the same. Interesting!! Thanks for posting.
 
No problem. :) That was 2 days worth but I wanted to make sure there was actually something for the vet to examine!

Good luck with the strongid-p, same course of action we took really, just trying a different wormer. :)
 
One of our horses had pinworms and our vet said they have been having problems with them becoming resistant to wormers. Our worm counts came back as zero but pin worms don't show up in worm counts. I was advised to use a wormer containing Pyrantel and we double dosed to do tapeworms as well and this seems to have solved the problem.
 
I'm pretty sure Strongid-P is the only known wormer to treat Pinworms. We've recently had to treat one with pinworms and under vets instructions we wormed Strongid P 3 times with 10 days intervals in between. Vet also prescribed a liquid ivermectin wormer which gets "painted" around the back end. Everything needs to be disinfected.

I saw something white on the back side of the horse, lifted tail and there was a pinworm coming out in white mucas/liquid. Fortunately i had tissue and wiped it off. Google pinworm images - interesting.

I think someone else mentioned also that Pinworms do not show up in worm counts.
 
I have just bought 2 x strongid p to double dose (sort of double as I have a big boy). Strongid p has pyrantel in.. the other which which also does and the vet suggested was pyrotape. Heres a list of the wormers and their main ingredient/chemical.

http://www.wormers-direct.co.uk/wormerprices.html


Did a google image search of pin worms on horses anus the other day and my boss was lurking behind me and wondered what the hell I was up to! DOH!

Fingers crossed this helps him out! Thank you for all your responses!
 
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