Severe worm burden/damage

[Muddy_wellies]

I’m not quiet sure what I’m after by posting here, just some support I guess. Some may of seen my previous post about my yearling who is loosing protein. Tests for Lawsonia came back negative. My vet has spoken with a referral vet and between them they have decided that my yearling has a severe worm burden, swollen guts and possible damage. I purchased him beginning of April. Within 2 days I had the vet to him as he was coughing and snotty. Over the following few weeks he has had high temps, diarrhoea, edema around the head and sheath, colic 5 times and still coughing. He is currently being treated with steroids and worming with moxidectin (equest) every 10 to 14 days. He seemed to be doing okay then last week had another bout of colic, 7 days after worming. He was wormed last Saturday, and so far he seems okay ?? I noticed when we first got him home that he lays down all the time (cctv in the stable) this is still the case, and after being turned out (he only manages a couple of hours) he gets exhausted. He will have repeat blood tests to see if his protein and albumin levels have increased. The last blood tests shown he also had very high lymphocytes. He also had some other things that were lower than expected. Has anyone had any experiences of any thing similar? I was expecting to see worms coming out, but nothing. The vet says this is because the worms are tiny. Some kind of worm that effects youngsters in particular. I feel so hopeless, it feels endless at the moment. He’s such a lovely horse, you wouldn’t think he’d be suffering from worm/damage by looking at him.

 

[Goldenstar]

I only have experience of this in rescues the one who I was involved with most closely did go on to have a happy life but did suffer health issues all her life .However she was severely emaciated as a young horse and this was a big part of her problems Colic is extremely common with horses when you dealing with high worm burdens rescue horses often suffer repeated bouts of colic .

Have they tested him for Salmonella?

It sounds like an awful experience that you are going through I really hope that there’s light at the end of tunnel for you both .

 

[paddy555]

my 5mo had a severe worm burden when he came. Wormed 5 days with panacur guard and it was like white spaghetti with round worms coming out and by the 5th day got down to mucus coloured smaller spaghetti. No idea how he didn't colic with the quantity. You couldn't miss it.

From your earlier posts I think the vets need to be considering other things. My lawsonia was tested for salmonella also. That hospital told me I may never know 100% the exact cause of his problems. They tested more than once for lawsonia and they were still not convinced. It wasn't black and white. As I have said before it was long term anti biotics but sucralfate was the vital part that healed the gut. Have they scanned the gut?

I know it is expensive but I think your horse needs to move onto horse hospital even if he only visits for them to try and clarify.

There are a lot of good vets around however mine was determined one of my horses had botulism. He spoke to a referral vet who did not see the horse. That vet agreed with him. If I had based his future on those 2 diagnoses he would have been PTS with botulism. When I involved a 3rd vet the anti biotics soon sorted out his throat infection.
If this was me I would be looking at the vet advice not the horse ATM and looking for another opinion and consideration of further tests.

 

[dorsetladette]

Has your vet done a worm count? My new lad came with a heavy worm burden. I wormed with moxidectin. He'd been wormed with ivermectin 3 weeks previously to me worming him. Neither of these moved anything. After talking to my vet we wormed with Pyratape which contains pyrental. We wormed once and then wormed again 10 days later. 2 weeks after that we did a worm count which showed we have broken the cycle. He is also now improving everyday.

I think it was mentioned in your previous thread about resistance to some wormers. When you worm are you seeing anything in his droppings? to keep worming like this I'd want to keep seeing worms in droppings or it would seem unnecessary.

Have you spoken to another vet for a second opinion? even if its the same diagnosis but a different approach.

 

[Zuzzie]

Sounds to me like your yearling needs to be in horspital to receive maximum care.

 

[Glitterandrainbows]

Whilst all this is going on can is he on a decent balancer with all the minerals he needs just because mine ( youngster )gets abit run down after worming and gets a rash but this is helped by decent balancer also what worms are they that you can’t see i could definitely see pin worms the first few times i wormed mine also red worms hope he heals soon xx