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  Discussion on Worms in his water trough?
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New Member:
Mandc

Posted on Monday, Nov 20, 2006 - 2:35 pm:

Hello all

I made a disgusting discovery yesterday: I went to clean my horse's 40 gallon water trough (a weekly task) and discovered a good two dozen worms in the bottom of it. These worms were about 2 inches long, pale pink/white, very thin, with a knob somewhere in the middle. They looked quite dead and not at all water-worthy. I share horse responsibilities with my husband, but I last looked at that trough three days earlier and they were certainly not there. I read all I could about horse parasites and they sound most like large strongyles but then they also look like anorexic earthworms. Where on earth did they come from? And should I be worried?

Poco (the horse) was last wormed with Strongid paste about two weeks ago, and before that with the same every month and Ivermectin injection in September, although that's only his recent history as we've only had him since July. Poco doesn't defecate near his water trough, much less in it. At least not usually... I clean the trough to keep any sort of algae growth down and because the birds like to use the water troughs as baths, leaving feathers and who knows what else behind.

I checked the other troughs around us. Although some were fairly dirty, none of them had worms. And yet all of them serve as bird baths so I don't think I can blame the darn birds. We dug out a trench a good while ago to help drain away the trough when we clean it - could the worms possibly have climbed their way in during the recent rains?? Or did Poco manage to DrOp a loaded pasture apple in his trough?? I'm pretty sure there's no way he could have coughed those out but let me know if I'm wrong.

Any suggestions/insights/alerts eagerly awaited!
Member:
Boomer

Posted on Monday, Nov 20, 2006 - 4:03 pm:

Um, ewwww.
Maybe they were those earthworms and they crawled in? I'm so going to examine my water buckets tonight..
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Nov 20, 2006 - 8:17 pm:

Way too big for large strongyles Cecile only male roundworms (I think) are about that size and if there was no fecal material in the water trough they are not likely to be intestinal parasites. Could we have a picture of one taken on a neutral background sitting next to a ruler?
DrO
Member:
Jojo15

Posted on Monday, Nov 20, 2006 - 8:42 pm:

Mutant mosquito larvae? :-)

could be as simple as a bird DrOpped it? do you have any chickens? My chickens are always running around with them in their mouths, very easily could lose it in a water bucket. or hide it. what animal likes to clean their booty? bird most likely...

my other thought, is that your horse is rubbing its butt on the water trough and indeed has worms and they uuuummm got there that way?

yes, very odd...
New Member:
Mandc

Posted on Monday, Nov 20, 2006 - 8:55 pm:

I poured out the trough yesterday, and what's left of the worms today (after a night in a muddy puddle) is not very photographic. Which makes me think they could only have been in the trough for a brief time or they would not have been recognizable. I hope I never see them again, but if I do, I will make sure to whip out the camera. I also took a good look in his manure and found nothing interesting.

I still like the bird-involvement theory, but I can't quite believe that in a day or two, they would suddenly DrOp 20+ worms when they never have before. We have no chickens. On the other hand, after some extra observation today, I can report they spend more time hanging around our trough than anyone else's. Whatever that's worth.

Finally, the water trough is just too low for butt scratching. How confounding.
Member:
Vickiann

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 21, 2006 - 11:56 am:

Cecile, I've had very similar looking worms in my fountain. Actually, I thought they looked a bit like very thin blood-suckers. The birds like to take baths in my fountain and they do eliminate DrOppings into it, so I too wondered if that could be a link. It seems strange something could grow within just one week. I have also gotten worms into my tank via acorns DrOpping into it and worms crawling out of the acorns. Tadpoles will also grow in a water tank if frogs lay eggs there. Maybe some other creature laid some eggs that hatched. Do let us know if you figure out the answer to this mystery!
Member:
Zarr

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 21, 2006 - 12:03 pm:

We have lots of magpies and crows who visit our tank they have left walnut shells worms small snakes and bits and pieces of baby birds legs heads feathers!! YUCK YUCK.. My horses usually tell me by standing and staring at tank but not drinking til I remove the nasty whatever.Oh yes the other day golfball ?? Cindy
Member:
Mcbizz

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 21, 2006 - 12:13 pm:

The pigeons, starlings, jays and very large ravens were literally taking over the horse's tank with all kinds of gross things floating and falling to the bottom. I have a 100 gallon tank for two horses, so now instead of topping it out, I fill it to just 2/3. Not close enough to the top for the smaller to perch and drink or for the big ones to dunk their victims.
I freshen the water daily by bucketing some of the old out, clean it once a week with Simple Green...much nicer water for the horses and the birds can splash around in what I bucket out. No more grisley gross stuff!
New Member:
Mandc

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 21, 2006 - 2:48 pm:

It seems that the consensus is that the worms are (1) unlikely coming out of Poco and (2) likely coming from the birds. I'll try underfilling his trough and hopefully I'll never have to see those things again. Thanks for all you help!
Member:
Gailkin

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 21, 2006 - 4:49 pm:

I found a live small skinny worm in a friend's water trough once. She dumped hers every day so it was fresh and alive. We put it in a container for the vet and I think it was a threadworm (I can't remember the right name). New foals get them in the mouth and then they migrate somewhere else in the body. If your horses are all adults, then I don't know what it could be either. I don't think the very thin worm we found had a knob in the middle at least I don't remember one.
Good luck in your identification. Gail
Member:
Vickiann

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 21, 2006 - 6:13 pm:

Lower levels in your water tank or other water containers may result in birds and animals DrOwning. At different times I have had a squirrel DrOwn, a screech owl, and when the level was really low, I once found a young, recently fledged red-shouldered hawk who didn't DrOwn because the level was low enough that it was able to keep its head above water. The bird was missing all of its tail feathers, which leads me to believe some creature pulled those out while the bird was trapped in the tank (coon?) For a while I had a huge problem with coons getting into my tank and defecating at night. (now that is a nasty sight and can result in visible parasites). Now I fill my tank to the rim every morning, making sure there are no nasty things in there and use a small dip net to remove small objects including gobs of psyllium DrOpped by my horses during the week each month that I sand them. During the day the water level gets lower but not so low that an animal or bird is unable to climb out. If you want to keep your water level lower, please consider those creatures who may DrOwn. If appropriate, you can put a "life raft" (piece of floating wood) into the tank.
Member:
Trouble

Posted on Wednesday, Nov 22, 2006 - 1:33 pm:

Vicki,

love the "life raft" idea, although me thinks my gelding would delight in a game of "toss the foreign object out of the water tank" game! Or perhaps the "I have a new chewy toy" game!

Guess I'd better keep the tank full!
Member:
Vickiann

Posted on Wednesday, Nov 22, 2006 - 7:51 pm:

Where I live, we are so fortunate to have many miles of trails that are the Florida Greenways, water management properties, or state or national forests. The water tanks at trail heads tend to have these "life rafts." It is a very sad thing to discover a beautiful animal or bird DrOwn in a water container.
Member:
Mcbizz

Posted on Friday, Dec 15, 2006 - 6:08 pm:

Having just read the pending results of the necropsy done on an HA member's horse (Zoom) and the likely diagnosis being EPM, I reread the article about the cause of this disease available on this site.
It positively reinforced my method of not allowing wildlife to drink from my horses' watering tank...I have yet to find a DrOwned creature in my tank, keeping the water level 3/4 from the top. I will add that I do keep a large birdbath in the yard that accomodates many birds, lizards, snakes, rabbits, squirrels and who knows what else...
New Member:
Mandc

Posted on Saturday, Dec 16, 2006 - 3:51 pm:

To return this discussion to worms, I can confirm that the worms were in fact earthworms. They returned after the last set of rains so that has something to do with it. So far, keeping the water level a few inches lower than before has done the trick to keep them out - as soon as I overfill and it rains, I get those suckers again. If I overfill, I also get a lot of bird poop. What a relief to finally figure this one out.
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