Tapeworm

M

Mitchyden

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 February 2009
Messages
445
Location
Hertfordshire
Visit site
I acquired a rescue pony almost six weeks ago and she was wormed two days after her arrival. I did a worm count on her and it came back as zero so I turned her out in the field with my others.

Unfortunately, although I double dosed her it would appear she has tapeworm (I know this wouldn't show on a worm count but I assumed as she'd been double dosed that she wouldn't have them!)

I've bought another wormer for her but now obviously need to also worm the others in the field. They were done about four weeks ago but I feel that I should do them again to be on the safe side. Should I worm them at the same time or wait until Megan has dropped her worms?

Still on this subject, my dogs regularly eat the horse poo so I will have to worm them as well. Again, should I leave it a few days/weeks before I do them?

Any ideas gratefully received as I've never had to deal with tapeworms in the 30+ years I've had horses!
 
Are you absolutely sure it's tapeworm? What have you seen? You won't need to worm everything else but let's establish what the problem is first. Rescues often bring lots of unwanted visitors! Was it double pyrantel you used? That would start the job but wouldn't treat everything and only lasts about 4-6 weeks. Help available if you want it.
 
Thanks for replying. I'm 99% certain it's tapeworm as I've looked at photos on the internet of worms and it looks identical to the tapeworm photos. I think it's the bit that drops off when full of eggs.

It was Strongid-P I used, I think that's pyrantel isn't it?

You sound like you've had experience with rescue ponies so any advice would be much appreciated.
 
Maybe someone with more knowledge can confirm, but I don't think your dogs need to be wormed against parasites they may pick up from horse poo, as parasites are host specific and will die off when ingested by another species? Your dogs should be on their own worming programme though, irrespective of the horses :)
 
They are wormed regularly but I didn't know whether to do an extra one if I knew there might be a problem. Someone else did tell me that the dogs shouldn't get worms from horses - is this the case for humans as well?
 
How long was it between dosing with dd pyrantel and finding tapeworm segments in the dung?
The intermediate host for equine tapeworm is a pasture mite. Dogs are not affected by horse worms - neither are humans.
 
aeg123 said:
I would say yes, if a human ingested (accidentally :eek:) any worm eggs/larvae they would die off (the worms, not the human!).
Click to expand...
No tapeworm eggs are not host specific. I clearly remember watching a documentary where a man ate a tapeworm egg on a piece of cracker from the carcass of a cow deliberately so he could grow a tapeworm for the documentary. I think its in the link below- just scroll down:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3236294.stm

It grew to about 25 foot and he laid it out on his garden lawn!

My friends horse recently had tapeworms. She double dosed her.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think it is possible to pick up tapeworms from cattle/pigs, usually as cysts from raw/undercooked beff/portk, but as mentioned above the equine tapeworm eggs need to be ingested by a mite for their survival, so etw eggs wouldn't survive inside a human; not sure what would happen if a person ate an adult tw though :eek: Perhaps someone else on here can give us the definitive verdict?

*beef/pork
 
Last edited:
If someone ate an adult tapeworm they would digest it in their gut - added protein!!
The tapeworm mentioned above is the human beef tapeworm Taenia saginata where the intermediate host is the bovine - as mentioned the intermediate stage sits in the muscle and if we eat undercooked beef with the cyst we get the tapeworm living in our gut!

Tapeworms are host specific; the intermediate stages may not be - which is why Hydatid disease occurs where we pick up the specific tapeworm eggs from dog's faeces, the tapeworm in question being Echinococcus granulosus which normally cycles between dogs and sheep.
 
I would be a bit worried about your dog eating poo if you have wormed recently. Ivermectin is poisonous to dogs especially collies.
 
I.m a bit puzzled by the original post, which I read as having wormed and then done worm count? If so the worm count result would be invalid, as you need to check at sufficient interval after you've wormed for an accurate reading. Generally this is the same as the recommend ed interval for the specific wormer used.
Obviously if worm count was done before wormer then that's ok.
 
The worm count was done two weeks after worming which is the recommended time after worming if the horse is wormed because it had them. This is as advised by Westgate. Unfortunately, tapeworm does not show up on a worm count, it needs a blood test.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top