strange symtoms

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jansfield

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Hi all , we have A 14 year old pony, always wormed with eqvalan, for weeks now she's been giving little shakes of her head as if A fly is irritating her, so we put it down to her perhaps having been stung.

Then she lost weight but that we put down to the paddocks grass been washed out because of our very wet summer,
we wormed her with A full 600 syringe of eqvalan, no worms in her droppings, then she started rubbing the inside of her front knees, and then looking around at her stomach and just watching it.

I am wondering if she could have A tapeworm or some sort of parasite moving around inside her, but I am baffled at her rubbing her front legs,

Any ideas
 
Sounds like she may be rubbing her legs as she is uncordinated in her legs. Maybe this is due to ataxia, and this may be caused by a trapped nerve, in the neck or spine. This might also be causing her to shake her head as she finds in uncomfortable. Best thing would be to consult a vet who make want to take xrays.
 
I'd watch her very closely. Don't like the sound of the watching the belly and weight loss. That would indicate to me a low grade colic. She wouldn't feel a worm moving around inside her and anyway if you've regularly wormed for tapes, encysted reds and bots then it's highly unlikely to be worm related. I'd be suspicious of something systemic causing bellyache and this could escalate fast. Don't like the weight loss. Get her teeth done just so you know it isn't that.
 
we change the wormers regulary, at the moment she is busy grazing, as we can see her out of the window,

we used eqvalan duo and no sign of worms.

she is full of life and bucks etc when she goes out, she just seems to have these strange things she does for the past six weeks
 
jansfield said:
we change the wormers regulary, at the moment she is busy grazing, as we can see her out of the window,

we used eqvalan duo and no sign of worms.

she is full of life and bucks etc when she goes out, she just seems to have these strange things she does for the past six weeks
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I don't think the wormers have anything to do with it. She might be running around and bucking but horses are flight animals. Even if they are ataxic (like I suspect your mare might be, hence the looking strange and suddenly rubbing knees together) they will still try to keep mobile as her instinct to do this is very strong otherwise in the wild, she would stick out like a sore thumb from the rest of the world and be prey.

I do think she could do with getting her back checked or maybe a neuro exam by the vet. I might be barking up the wrong tree, but this is exactly how my horse behaved when he had neck problems due to a fall in the field, which affected the nerves leading to his legs. In his case his back legs were worse than his front and he kept rubbing his hind fetlocks together.
 
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sometimes it' s so hard to deal with symptoms , you tend to consider them all together but maybe one has nothing to do with another..

It's kind of weird she keeps watching her stomach ( it makes me think about colic) and rubbing her mouth ..

have you think about an abdominal ultrasound ? it might be useful
 
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