Worming a pony prone to laminitis

G

GREYSMEADOW

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 December 2008
Messages
845
Location
In Mid Sussex (UK)
Visit site
Can anyone recommend me which wormer to use for a pony who is prone to laminitis.
I need to worm my other lads in the next 7 days so really need to do the little fella too.

Recommendations and advise much appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Why would worming effect him cause he's laminitic? I worm mine as normal reguardless off the fact he has had laminitis. Will be interesting to see what people say as this as buffled me. :(
 
My old pony was a laminitic with dreadful worm damage (ignorant previous owners!) which meant she had to be wormed every 3 months on the dot or she developed nasty diarrhoea even though she wasn't infested (my vet was in agreement with my decision to worm so often - varying the wormers of course). Worming never caused any issues with her so I'm not sure what problems you think it will cause.

oh and pony lived til her early 30s.
 
Ime it totally depends on the cause of the laminitis. I've found ponies who've had steroid or toxin-induced laminitis do seem to react to worming :( ... I tend to feed a probiotic for a few days before and after to these ponies. If I can, then I will paddock and use 5-day panacur, however this is only moderately effective on chalky soils.
 
I worm count Frank and when he needs worming I use one with a single ingredient as I've read that this is preferable. Frank was wormed last Sunday and was noticably footy Monday and Tuesday but has seemed ok the rest of the week (he's in during the day and muzzled at night).
 
definitely not equest pramox. Nor would I use any combination wormers ie red worm/tapeworm ones. If I really really needed to I would use equest but not very willingly. I would have to be convinced there was a real need.
I would worm count as a matter of course and be careful at this time of the year.
 
paddy555 said:
definitely not equest pramox. Nor would I use any combination wormers ie red worm/tapeworm ones. If I really really needed to I would use equest but not very willingly. I would have to be convinced there was a real need.
I would worm count as a matter of course and be careful at this time of the year.
Click to expand...

Yes to all the above. I am convinced there is a link between laminitis and the often unnecessary use of wormers. Not sure if it is because of the chemicals used or whether some horses actually need a (low) worm burden. I am certainly not suggesting any horse should be left full of redworm !! But I do think worm counts are in order and a careful decision made once the results are known.

Laminitis used to be a rarity, I never saw a case in all the years I worked with horses. Two things have changed in those years; firstly we tend to worm religiously whereas before there were no wormers other than some little pink granules that no horse ever ate; and secondly we never used to rug so obsessively, horses went out and dropped some weight over winter, some had canvas NZs to keep the rain off, but they were never rugged purely for warmth unless they had a full hunter clip and were in hard work.
 
Some ponies do seem to react to worming by becoming footy or developing laminitis, at the end of the day a wormer is a chemical that has to be processed by the horse's body, add to that the possible die off of any worms and you've got a few challenges for a sensitive horse to deal with.
There is a paragraph here from thehorseshoof.com:-

"Frequent chemical deworming is a common denominator. An “aha” of the month came in the form of a flyer containing the results of a study reported in the March, 1987, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. This study deals with low thyroid, and states that “only 18 percent of the total circulating T3 hormone is produced in the thyroid, while 82 percent comes from ... conversions of T4 to T3 in tissues other than the thyroid gland.” The primary organ for this conversion is thought for this conversion is thought to be the liver. What this means to me, in plain English, is that toxic liver equals reduced ability to convert thyroid hormone to the active form equals classic hypothyroid symptoms, one of which is dry, scaly skin and brittle hooves or nails. Incidentally, the T3 form of thyroid hormone is far more active than T4 - thyroxine - and yet T4 as a synthetic is the form prescribed by most doctors and veterinarians. Horses which are severely hypothyroid are under such metabolic stress that they may founder or experience separation of the white line, which can lead to seedy toe or white line disease. Often your farrier can tell you when you have dewormed horses recently, by the blood and little separations evident in the white line. And you don't think worming is a metabolic stress? Likewise vaccination is a big stress…use discretion."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top