Weight gain after severe tapeworm infection

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SO1

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My normally good doer pony lost a lot of weight over the 6 weeks he has been under the vet investigation for another problem and the vet did a blood test and it turns out he has a severe tapeworm infestation despite being on an approved worming programme that included two tape wormers a year. The tapeworm infestation could have been the cause of his other problem too {out of breathe and funny turns}

His blood test came back at over 2 with anything over 0.7 being a bad infection.

The vet is not convinced that the tape worm infestation is the reason for his extreme weight loss but I would have though such a high infection could have caused him to get very thin. Hence the reason they are very keen to hospitalise him and do more tests, however they have agreed they will hold off the hospitalisation for a couple of weeks to see if the weight will come back on now he has been treated for the tapeworm. He lives out as he does not like being stabled so being at the hospital and stabled will be stressful for him, so I want to avoid that if possible. He had to go there on 10/11 Feb for tests on his heart which turned out to be ok, it was after he came back from hospital that his weight dropped loads. He also had an endoscope and bloods done last Tuesday at the yard so he has had quite a lot of stressful vet stuff done recently.

He was tape wormed on Saturday as part of his routine worming and I was wondering how long after worming would it take for him to start putting on weight again as the vet has said if he does not improve he will have to be hospitalised.

He lives out and we do not have much grass at the moment but I expect it will start coming through again soon. As he is normally having to be dieted and not used to big feeds I have upped his feeds gradually so now he is having two feed of L mix a day which amount to 1.5 kilos in total and I have just started adding oil as well. L mix is a very low starch/sugar mix which is suitable for laminitics and which he is used to having - normally he only has a handful to mix his supplements in so this is a significant increase in the amount he is getting. I am also feeding him global herbs restore liquid.

Also at the weekends I am bringing him in so he can have hay and he will eat about one slice he is not a an avid consumer of hay and does not like being in for very long as he prefers to be in the field. Normally he would not get hay so again this is a bit extra. He had been on the weight gain diet for one week before his tape worm treatment but still lost weight but presume that might be due to the tapeworm.

So in the last week since he was wormed on Sat which I presume got rid of his unwanted visitors he was in most of Sunday and had his L mix and ad lib hay of which he ate about 1 big slice.

He has then been having his Lmix every day and on Thursday I was off work as he had the farrier so he came in for most of the day and had his Lmix and a big slice of hay which he ate most of.

However he is still stick thin and I am getting worried that as he is not improving he is going to end up being hospitalised. He does not like being stabled for long period of time so keeping him for long periods is tricky and as he prefers to grass to hay he may not eat that much hay anyway. I have to be careful with high energy feeds due to the starch and sugar content as the vet and myself do not want him to get laminitis. He is also a slightly fussy eater and so don't want to change his feeds too much as at least he does eat the L mix. I have ordered the blue chip native pony balancer for him but that won't arrive till next Wednesday.

He is normally a very good doer who has to be muzzled and dieted so weight gain has never been an issue for him and I am still finding it hard to break his diet and feed what seems like such huge amounts.

I really don't want him to end up hospitalised so I was wondering how long it would take to see some weight gain in him following the exit of the tapeworms I am already very worried about how skinny he is as I can see all his ribs easily. I am weight taping him on a regular basis and hoping to take some afternoons off work next week as well so that I can bring him in and give him some hay.
 
Have his teeth been thoroughly checked? If not it would be worth doing that as not eating hay and being fussy eating feeds can be sign of mouth pain and tooth problems which can cause weight loss and may be why he prefers soft grass to hay. Try to find either a vet who is also an edt or a very experienced dentist. When my horses had liver fluke it took 4-6 weeks to notice a difference in their weight. Ideally you need to feed four times a day and although you don't want to change his feed you could try adding micronized linseed (better than oil) and Alfabeet or speedibeet. As he lives out you might want to ask your vet about treating for liver fluke too.
 
Even if he is not that keen on hay I would be giving him plenty so there is always some in the field, he will gain more weight from having forage available than by pumping in the hard feed, if he eats when in during the day that may be the best way to get more into him, you could also split the hard feed so he has 3 each day, unless he is actually unwell I cannot see why he should be sent to hospital you should be able to get the weight on with a few changes to management.
As above teeth may be an issue, linseed is a good way to get calories into them without giving a large quantity and the grass should be coming through which will help.
 
You might find this helpful as it outlines what to rehab a starved horse on and why.

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/29...&utm_medium=nutrition&utm_campaign=09-16-2013

If you have a good doer/laminitic the no sugar rule should still apply so maybe soak the hay? Also calories by way of oil can be useful....

if you are not member it might be necessary for you to paste in the following at the end of the link above. It won't let me put the full one down here!
utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=nutrition&utm_campaign=09-16-2013
 
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It is likely to take some weeks for him to gain weight if he has lost a lot. Although the grass will come through it's not likely to be in sufficient quantity until the end of April dependent on weather conditions if the grazing has been in use all winter. If you have winter grazing and then move to summer field which has been left vacant this may make a difference.
Has the horse ever had laminitis? Been tested to see if predisposes to it? I would speak to one of the main feed manufacturers and see what they advice, you will need to follow the complete diet not do a mix and match job! Lots of little feeds are required rather than just one or two bigger ones, horses graze continually and so three or four smaller ones would be best for weight gain. When one of my horses lost a lot of weight she was part of a vet school research project and was fed alpha a and sugar beet. However if the weight gain is sudden and unexplained and if you have fed on a good regime over the winter I would be following to advice of the vet and looking for further investigation asap, better that than leaving too long. Leisure mix is unlikely to produce weight gain very quickly and a balancer if just that - it provides essential nutrients but isn't going to put weight on unless feed in combination with other products which the manufacturers can recommend. Hope things look up soon.
 
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His appetite was a bit better today and he ate three slices of hay as well as his bucket feed and then when I turned him back out he cantered back to his friends in the field so hopefully he is starting to feel a bit better. I cant put hay in the field for him as he has fieldmates who don't need it.

His teeth are fine they were last checked in November and the vet checked them again last week.

My friends horse has also lost some weight though not as extreme so we have decided to share a bag of fast fibre and as that has most DE than what they are normally getting. The L mix is the allen and page mix suitable for laminitics and fast fibre is also suitable but with more caleries.

Thankfully he has not had laminitis but he had a bit of a scare last summer when he got very fat and his pulses went up and the farrier said I need to be careful with his weight so I don't like to take any risks. He is a native pony and I think they tend to be high risk for laminitis anyway if not managed carefully.
 
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Don't know what the land is like round you but wet areas (isn't everywhere this year?) can be at high risk of liver fluke, especially (but not always) if there are sheep or cattle nearby. Won't always show up in a blood test and I know many horses who have started to thrive after being treated for fluke - vet needs to supply something like Fasinex which is not licenced for horses. Cheap to dose, never known an adverse reaction and worth a try if things don't improve.
 
Thanks it has been very wet and we do have cattle in the next door field so that is something to add to the list if now the tapeworms have gone he does not put on weight
 
Have read a lot about fluke but that article was particularly interesting and straightforward, thanks Tnavas. Hadn't realised rabbits could carry it too, thankfully not that many wombats in west Scotland (yet!). I don't think fluke in horses is taken seriously enough.
 
sueonmull said:
Have read a lot about fluke but that article was particularly interesting and straightforward, thanks Tnavas. Hadn't realised rabbits could carry it too, thankfully not that many wombats in west Scotland (yet!). I don't think fluke in horses is taken seriously enough.
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Does that mean you have kangaroos? I know here are a few wallabies around Whipsnade zoo! :D

It is a good article, I liked the picture with the Metacercariae encysted on grass blades.
 
Used to live near Bedford, never saw the famous wallabies myself but know lots of people that did. Waiting for the kangaroo reintroduction scheme to reach Scotland, sure they must be on the list somewhere after the lynx, wolves and bears.........
 
PLEASE BE AWARE OF TAPE WORM!

I want to let everyone know about this dreadful worm that can hide from a full blood test and worm count. My friend's poor horse that retired from racing in France, looked dreadful when he arrived back home. She wormed him including Tape Worm and after two weeks still wasn't happy with him and thought there must be something else going on. Got a full blood test and nothing really showed up other than inflammation pointing towards his gut. Did a worm count and it was normal, but she still wasn't happy. Vets said he obviously wasn't being fed properly in France and given time he will put on condition. After another couple of weeks she suggested to the vet to take a blood test for Tape Worm, and there was the answer!! Even though she had wormed him for this, apparently there are 3 types of Tape Worm and only Equitape gets rid of all of these. The very next day after worming, we could not believe the difference, literally overnight he had some condition on him.
 
SO1 said:
My normally good doer pony lost a lot of weight over the 6 weeks he has been under the vet investigation for another problem and the vet did a blood test and it turns out he has a severe tapeworm infestation despite being on an approved worming programme that included two tape wormers a year. The tapeworm infestation could have been the cause of his other problem too {out of breathe and funny turns}

His blood test came back at over 2 with anything over 0.7 being a bad infection.




The vet is not convinced that the tape worm infestation is the reason for his extreme weight loss but I would have though such a high infection could have caused him to get very thin. Hence the reason they are very keen to hospitalise him and do more tests, however they have agreed they will hold off the hospitalisation for a couple of weeks to see if the weight will come back on now he has been treated for the tapeworm. He lives out as he does not like being stabled so being at the hospital and stabled will be stressful for him, so I want to avoid that if possible. He had to go there on 10/11 Feb for tests on his heart which turned out to be ok, it was after he came back from hospital that his weight dropped loads. He also had an endoscope and bloods done last Tuesday at the yard so he has had quite a lot of stressful vet stuff done recently.


He was tape wormed on Saturday as part of his routine worming and I was wondering how long after worming would it take for him to start putting on weight again as the vet has said if he does not improve he will have to be hospitalised.

He lives out and we do not have much grass at the moment but I expect it will start coming through again soon. As he is normally having to be dieted and not used to big feeds I have upped his feeds gradually so now he is having two feed of L mix a day which amount to 1.5 kilos in total and I have just started adding oil as well. L mix is a very low starch/sugar mix which is suitable for laminitics and which he is used to having - normally he only has a handful to mix his supplements in so this is a significant increase in the amount he is getting. I am also feeding him global herbs restore liquid.

Also at the weekends I am bringing him in so he can have hay and he will eat about one slice he is not a an avid consumer of hay and does not like being in for very long as he prefers to be in the field. Normally he would not get hay so again this is a bit extra. He had been on the weight gain diet for one week before his tape worm treatment but still lost weight but presume that might be due to the tapeworm.

So in the last week since he was wormed on Sat which I presume got rid of his unwanted visitors he was in most of Sunday and had his L mix and ad lib hay of which he ate about 1 big slice.

He has then been having his Lmix every day and on Thursday I was off work as he had the farrier so he came in for most of the day and had his Lmix and a big slice of hay which he ate most of.

However he is still stick thin and I am getting worried that as he is not improving he is going to end up being hospitalised. He does not like being stabled for long period of time so keeping him for long periods is tricky and as he prefers to grass to hay he may not eat that much hay anyway. I have to be careful with high energy feeds due to the starch and sugar content as the vet and myself do not want him to get laminitis. He is also a slightly fussy eater and so don't want to change his feeds too much as at least he does eat the L mix. I have ordered the blue chip native pony balancer for him but that won't arrive till next Wednesday.

He is normally a very good doer who has to be muzzled and dieted so weight gain has never been an issue for him and I am still finding it hard to break his diet and feed what seems like such huge amounts.

I really don't want him to end up hospitalised so I was wondering how long it would take to see some weight gain in him following the exit of the tapeworms I am already very worried about how skinny he is as I can see all his ribs easily. I am weight taping him on a regular basis and hoping to take some afternoons off work next week as well so that I can bring him in and give him some hay.
Click to expand...


If you go on to Equine science Facebook page you can read up about tapeworm problems. There is a horse they are talking about that had similar problems to yours and had to be wormed with Equitape and then fed an Equine Science product and he has picked up very well. Might be worth a read. Hope your boy picks up quickly, they are such a worry when something is not right.
 
ceylon said:
PLEASE BE AWARE OF TAPE WORM!

I want to let everyone know about this dreadful worm that can hide from a full blood test and worm count. My friend's poor horse that retired from racing in France, looked dreadful when he arrived back home. She wormed him including Tape Worm and after two weeks still wasn't happy with him and thought there must be something else going on. Got a full blood test and nothing really showed up other than inflammation pointing towards his gut. Did a worm count and it was normal, but she still wasn't happy. Vets said he obviously wasn't being fed properly in France and given time he will put on condition. After another couple of weeks she suggested to the vet to take a blood test for Tape Worm, and there was the answer!! Even though she had wormed him for this, apparently there are 3 types of Tape Worm and only Equitape gets rid of all of these. The very next day after worming, we could not believe the difference, literally overnight he had some condition on him.
Click to expand...

^^^^ This.
 
Thankfully my pony got better quickly and by mid May he had put on so much weight that was back to his normal fat self he had to have his grazing muzzle on again.

My pony has been wormed with the equitape but the chemical in equitape is also in equimax and pramox so it can't be the only wormer to treat all three species.
 
SO1 said:
Thankfully my pony got better quickly and by mid May he had put on so much weight that was back to his normal fat self he had to have his grazing muzzle on again.

My pony has been wormed with the equitape but the chemical in equitape is also in equimax and pramox so it can't be the only wormer to treat all three species.
Click to expand...

Sometimes when a horse has a heavy burden of parasites they need to be wormed a second time within a short period of time. When I get a new horse on the property it will be wormed weekly for three weeks with an Ivermectin/Praziquontal wormer.

Praziquontal is the active ingredient that is used to kill Tapeworm in modern wormers.
 
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