Warning: weight loss and worms

[Queenbee]

Hi there, just a warning to anyone who's horses are losing condition or not putting it on despite lots of feed. If you read my recent threads about my made ebony she went rapidly down hill you could see the deterioration daily. She was wormed with equest but continued to deteriorate. She lost her appetite and energy, the vet came out and put her on pancur, bute and antibiotics. The vets have seen an alarming number of horses that despite being on good worming programmes and field management have gone down hill due to red worm this year. I have been advised that using equest and pancur back to back (no break between doses) is the best way to get these worms out of a horses system. A week on and ebony is well on the way to being her old self but you can see from my previous threads the pictures of her, the weight loss was dramatic, the vet described her condition as acute.

This year something has triggered these cases, they think it is the rain that we had. I thought I would lose my mare, I was worming regularly and we still got caught out, so please beware of this if you have a horse that is in poor. Condition and not picking up like it normally does. X

 

[YasandCrystal]

Thanks for the warning. Redworm are horrible. How scary for you.

 

[LisW]

Thank you for that. My daughter's pony is as you describe - losing weight & condition, although on regular worming programme, eating loads & we've had him 8 years & always been good doer before. Was it the 5 day Panacur you used?

 

[Crazydancer]

Scary.... glad to hear she's on the road to recovery. We do worm counts, and noticed that even after a course of 5 day Panacur Guard, the counts seem to have gone up. Hugely so for one horse in particular, kept on the same pasture/same routine as the others, so we think she has a resistance. Interesting about the increased redworm risk, thanks, I'll mention that to YO.

 

[Queenbee]

Yes, equest, followed by 5 day pancur. I had a 2 week break between mine but vet said he would normally not bother with a break and do them back to back, leave no mercy for them!! The difference in ebony after a week is amazing, they hit her so hard I thought I was losing her

 

[Queenbee]

Even one of the vets at the practice had problems with his horse this yr

 

[LouS]

Yep same thing happened to mine, she was on a regular worming program, fit and in work and within maybe 3 days she looked like a hat-rack, I won't tell you what was going through my head. Vet couldn't find any signs of illness so took a worm count and it was very high! Double dosed with Strongid P (I think?) on advice of vet and she picked up very quickly.

 

[Queenbee]

The absolute worst went through mine, I was thinking aggressive tumours even before the vet got there, very scary!