Worm?

[JadeWisc]

I am wondering what I should do. All of my horses are wormed every two months with a broad sprectrum wormer such as Equimax or Combo Care gel. They were just wormed less than one month ago. I swear when I was brushing Tex (our two year old) I saw what I am lead to believe is a segment of a tape worm on the outside of his rectum. I looked closely and I cannot be sure, but I have no other idea what it could be.It was clearish white and had a long stringy end to it .
Would any of you do an early worming with all of the horses a month ahead of schedule to be safe. I am pretty sure it is what I would do, but I have to get A vets (or some of you experienced experts ) advice before I go ahead. The vets office is closed today as it's the day after Thanksgiving here. I am not going to phone the emergency line as I am not sure it constitutes an emergency, but will ask on Monday. Can anyone on here be of any help?

 

[spaniel]

I would wait until after thanksgiving and then ask the vet to come and take a tapeworm antibody blood test (not sure what they are called in the US but Im sure he would know what I mean). That would give you an indication of the level of tapeworm, if any, present and thus give you an idea of whether your worming programme is working properly.

 

[MANDM]

I HAVE RECENTLY CHANGED TO A HERBAL WORMER CALLED VERM x HERE IN THE UK BECAUSE OF MY CONCERNS OVER THE USE OF TOO MANY CHEMICALS NOT ONLY IN THE WORMERS BUT IN FOODS AND THE ENVIROMENT IN GENERAL.
I ALSO GET WORM COUNTS DONE WHICH TELL ME IF THE WORMERS ARE WORKING.
HOPE YOU GET IT SORTED WITH YOUR VET
REGARDS

 

[lilym]

i would get your vet to check out antibody levels for tapeworm, if you are using equimax, assuming it is the same as our u.k product, being a combination of ivermectin and praziquantel, it should be doing the job, however if you are underdosing the horses - not saying you are- this could be leading to resistance problems, by exposing some worms to a sub lethal dose of wormer, which they are survivng and becoming immune to, i have not heard of this in the u.k in combination wormers as yet, but it is becoming common among the fenbendazole group, i.e panacur.......i have also heard of ivermectin resistance in europe, so to be on the safe side have a chat with your vet, i'm sure after thanksgiving will be fine, they will run tests and if needs be will give you a stronger programme to get things under control, good luck!

 

[JadeWisc]

Is it possible that it could have been contracted after the worming took place? I am not sure of the incubation and growth of these worms.

 

[lilym]

unlikely.. the activity of the wormer means it should have killed any tapeworms developing in the gut, adult and immature, tapeworms hook onto the intestinal wall and absorb their food through their skin, the grow by the expansion, lenthways and widthways of their segments, the end segments are basically bags of eggs, these break off when mature and are passed out with the droppings, where they infect pasture, the eggs are then eaten by an intermediate host such as a mite, once inside this host they form a cyst in one of it's organs and develop into a viable larvae, this intermediate host is then eaten while the horse grazes at pasture, the cysts hatch in the intestines and the new tapeworms hook on to the itestinal wall to renew the life cycle, if you are worming correctly every 8 weeks the wormer should be dealing with the problem, what is your grazing like? do you have "closed pasture" or are new horses coming and going alot?

 

[JadeWisc]

well. They are usually on an open pasture with 3 of them all summer. They have been brought over tothee smaller area for winter with no grazing. Just getting hay and grain atm.
Anyhow. Have spoken to vet and was advised to give a full dose of our wormer asap (and have done) I have used combo care gel the last 3 times, so I used equimax this time for a change. Not sure if the ingredients are exact, but both have effectiveness for tapeworms.


What can be done if the "immunity" has been built up by underdosing, and could this have happened prior to us having him and still be an issue? (we have had this horse for a year)

 

[lilym]

ask your vet for the tapeworm antibody test, if positive, changing the drug should help, if you can get hold of a brand with the active ingredient of pyrantel embonate this is effective against tapeworms at double the normal dose.

 

[JadeWisc]

thanks

will do

 

[Gillb]

Just a thought, that worm sounds like a pin worm from your description?