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Discussion on Wormy? Pregnant? Rescue? Pony Mare
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Posted on Wednesday, Aug 15, 2001 - 12:10 am:
Just today I purchased a pony mare that while she hasn't been abused or starved, she's lacked some basic care. Worming, shots, and farrier work for the most part. The farriery is being taken care of. Looks like she may have foundered in the past on her fronts which haven't seen a farrier's rasp in at least a year.
Either she's pregnant, wormy or both as she's in pretty good flesh but with a big belly. Her stools don't squirm...but I'm pretty sure she hasn't been wormed in over a year. I also know she was in a herd of other pony mares with a halflinger stallion for the past year. So if she is pregnant, we have no clue yet how far along she is.
My questions are:
If she is pregnant, is it safe to worm her if she has a heavy worm load? Could there be a possibility of loosing the foal?
If she does have a heavy worm load, I've seen references to having it killed off all at once can permanently damage her bowels and the vessels supplying it. Any way to circumvent this?
What's the best product to use in this situation? I bought a tube of ivermectin and the guy at the feed store said to just go ahead and worm her but I'm afraid to do it.
The vet is scheduled to come out on Friday for a check up, coggins, pregnancy check, shots...etc but I feel I should be doing something in the mean time.
Thanks in advance!
~Sharon
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Posted on Wednesday, Aug 15, 2001 - 4:40 pm:
Hello Sharon,
We cover this subject in detail in : Care for Horses: Nutrition: Rehabilitating Malnourished Horses. The deworming regimen, where a heavy burden is suspected, in their should also work for a pregnant horse. Where given a choice between a benzimadazole or pyrantel in the schedule choose pyrantel.
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 16, 2001 - 2:19 am:
Dr. O,
I didn't think to look there since she's probably a 7 on the body scale.
Just a couple more questions though. It may sound silly or be obvious to someone else, but the worming schedule listed in the article is a bit confusing to me. It looks like a 4 week schedule, but do you worm every day? Or pick a day, give the first recommended dose/product then wait 7 days and give the next? The last seems more reasonable to me, but I'm not sure.
Also should I get a fecal done before I hit her with the wormer and after or is it not worth it at this point to do one first?
Thanks again! I don't know what I'd do with out this site. Probably have lots of bottled up questions and grey hairs from needless worrying! 
~Sharon
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 16, 2001 - 7:00 am:
Hello Sharon,
You do not deworm everyday, just deworm at the recommended times. A fecal might give you a clue as to whether to expect problems with deworming.
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 16, 2001 - 11:02 am:
Sharon- if there is a possibility that she is pregnant, before you do anything you should probably have her preg checked by your vet. This up front expense will probably save alot of $ in the long run. Then your vet can also give you a recomendation on an appropriate worming and vaccination schedule for her condition, the time of year and your area.
-Emily
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 16, 2001 - 1:45 pm:
Dr. O and Emily,
Thanks! I feel much better informed now. I'll just wait until tomorrow for the vet to check her before I do anything. I'll let you know what we find out.
~Sharon
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Posted on Friday, Aug 17, 2001 - 2:57 pm:
Turns out the pony is not pregnant, has a large amount of strongyles and is a little overweight. The vet recommended a full tube of Quest followed in two weeks by a full tube of ivermectin. The pony is probably around 700 lbs. Does this sound like it might make a too rapid kill off of the worms?
~Sharon
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Posted on Saturday, Aug 18, 2001 - 7:43 am:
Not being able to examine the pony or the fecal, I cannot know. I am interested in why The Quest before the ivermectin. It would be a little easier on the systen the other way around unless she is concerned about migrating bot larvae, where the ivermectin may be a little more effective. Talk over with your vet your concerns about inducing a colitis with a large kill off of strongyle larvae and what he thinks about using a half dose of ivermectin first, just to see if that is well tolerated.
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, Aug 19, 2001 - 4:18 am:
Dr. O,
I think the vet recommended the Quest first because when he asked me how I worm (I follow the yearly rotational schedule on this site, and am on the ivermectin year) he said to use the Quest and then give her the ivermectin when all my other horses were due to get their dose in 2 weeks.
~Sharon
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Posted on Sunday, Aug 19, 2001 - 8:00 am:
And this is important because....?
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, Aug 19, 2001 - 11:51 pm:
Your guess is as good as mine...probably better. Maybe he was trying to be helpful in trying to get the mare worked into my worming program as quickly as possible. Either way I'm going to call their office tomorrow (FINALLY a day off work!!) and let them know my worries about too quick of a kill off.
~Sharon
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 23, 2001 - 4:11 pm:
Update: I talked to the vet and he said he didn't think there was a problem but if it made me feel better to go ahead and half dose ivermectin twice then use the quest. I gave her the 1st half dose on the 20th. Today was the farrier's visit. During his visit she pooped a big poop! Afterwards when I was cleaning up I noticed a big ugly worm in it. It looked more like a grub...ewww! I was just wondering if there was some where I could go to get pictures of the different worms that can infest a horse so I could identify it. I just want to satisfy my own curiosity.
~Sharon
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Posted on Friday, Aug 24, 2001 - 7:12 am:
Hello Sharon,
We have integrated into our search database the US Veterinary Parasitology site, so if you run a search on particular parasites you can get hold of some really neat photos. However it requires a bit of taxonomy knowledge to find the horse parasites easily. I will see what I can do next month about organizing pictures of the common horse parasites. What you saw may have been a bot fly grub.
DrO
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