Ulcers - tested positive for hindgut - but where to now?

[Shannon2020]

My horse tested positive for bleeding/albumin in the hindgut using the Succeed fecal blood test. So devastated, but also relieved i finally have a bit of an answer.

My horse has been unwell for a couple of months. I think her condition started after a huge move (6 days travel) but full blown symptoms started when the green grass came through. We are now at the stage where she is terrified when she sees the saddle.

Treating with sucralfate and equishure. Wondering if i should also start on Succeed?

Just looking for any advice or happy ending stories going forward from anyone who has been through similar?

 

[Wheels]

Did you have a blood test done for migrating red worm at the same time as you had the succeed test done? migrating red worm cause lesions in the gut / hind gut that can give a positive succeed test result when there is no real hind gut problems.

This happened with my horse and I spent £££ on ulcer treatments with no improvement - was something else in the end

 

[Shannon2020]

I had a blood test done when she first got sick, but no the vet didn’t suggest testing for red worm (do you remember the name of the test)? We did an egg count 2 weeks ago and it came back with a medium load, so she was wormed with Equest 2 days ago.

What symptoms would I be seeing if it was red worm? And how would you treat – just worming?

 

[Wheels]

I'm not sure what the test was called - it was a blood test done by the vet after we got a positive succeed test. Wormed with panacur 5 day and second succeed test came back negative.

It won't show on a worm count but if your horse came back with medium count you might well have a migrating red worm problem. Incidentally my boys worm counts always came back low but still had migrating red worms and that's where the blood came from.

Once ulcers were ruled out (have you had a scope done?) then we found he had other issues causing his symptoms

 

[Shannon2020]

Oh my goodness, she was wormed just over 24hrs ago with the Equest and i can see the red worms in her poo! Now i'm really stressing as i had no idea how dangerous these worms are.

Thank you so much for suggesting this.

Does the panacur kill the encysted ones?

 

[SEL]

Equest will kill the encysted ones. I sadly became a bit of an 'expert' on this when we lost 2 young horses (24 months and 18 months old) on our yard last year after a resistance problem with encysted redworm.

Speak to your vet, but they might suggest doing another dose of Equest in a few weeks time. This is what we were able to do with most of the older horses on the yard and they are all still kicking along fine. Problem tummies calmed down pretty quickly.

 

[Shannon2020]

Thank you. And very sorry to hear about your horses.

 

[Shannon2020]

Hi Wheels, just wondering how long after worming did you see a positive change in temperament?

 

[Wheels]

The worms were not the cause of my horses problems - if only it were that simple.

It allowed me, along with a scope, to rule out ulcers / stomach problems but there were other issues which were causing his symptoms

 

[SEL]

Has your horse been scoped for ulcers? I will now put mine back on omeprazole when she has a flare up (not wanting saddle on is one of her signals), but she was scoped initially as she's about as far from your stereotypical ulcer horse as you can get. A scope is worth it to get an idea of what is going on inside and to come up with an action plan. Mine had a good 4 weeks of doing nothing but ad lib winter grazing to let the drugs do their job and take away the association of pain with riding.