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HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Eye Diseases » Anterior Uveitis, Recurrent Uveitis, Periodic Opthalmia, and Moonblindness »
  Discussion on Recurrent Uveitis, Worming, and Aspirin
Author Message
New Member:
Kalypso

Posted on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 4:33 pm:

Hi,
I have a 14 yo QH/TB gelding, Diamond, that has been diagnosed with ERU. We bought the horse about 3 years ago from a trail ride outfit knowing he had an eye "condition" but nothing about the seriousness of ERU. At the time he had had several flare-ups but no treatment. The pupil in his right eye has adherred in a number of places and allows in very little light. We suspect he only has about 20% vision. Luckily since we have owned him he has only had three flare-ups. Once from running into something and scratching his eye, and twice after worming with an ivermectin paste. All flare-ups were treated carefully and correctly and he improved within a week. After discussion with our local vet (competent, but not versed in ERU), we give him Strongid pellets, and worm with an ivermectin paste once a year for bots. Before the paste treatment we give him bute. He also gets a daily dose of aspirin. After joining and reading the worming and ERU articles and posts... I have some questions. Is this course of worming sufficient? He has been on Strongid, along with our other horse, for two years. According to the article on this website, I haven't been feeding nearly enough aspirin (about 1/4 of the recommended amount). 15mg/kg twice a day seems like a large amount. Diamond refuses to eat powdered aspirin, flavored, in grain, mash, etc and I've resorted to feeding him aspirin in tablet form with his grain. Do I need to worry about stomach problems with that much aspirin? Do you have a reccomendation for an inexpensive source of large quantities of aspirin?
Member:
Gafarm

Posted on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 9:17 pm:

There is a support group for owners of blind and partially blind horses at this site, https://www.smartgroups.com/groups/BlindHorses
You can access the messages and look up info in the archives even if you do not want to join the group. The group members are very friendly and really try to help each other and share experiences with dealing with various causes of blindness in their horses. Search the archives on "worming". A vet who is a group member wrote several interesting messages on ERU and wormers and suggested method of worming to reduce chances of the wormers triggering the auto immune response which can cause the ERU flare ups. Several of the members have been using herbal anti inflamatories like BL Solution instead of bute or aspirin with good results.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2004 - 6:49 am:

The way to tell if your deworming program is adequate Kasey is to have fecal tests run at least 3 months after your ivermectin deworming.

Besides the reference in the article n RU we have an article on aspirin, Equine Medications and Nutriceuticals » Anti-inflammatories: NSAID's, Steroids, and Arthritis Treatment » Aspirin. Unfortunately there is not a lot of experimental or even clinical data of aspirin use in horses but this suggestion with aspirin has been generally available for horses for many years yet there are no recent reports of toxicity. Lastly, I do not have a source of inexpensive aspirin, perhaps others have suggestions.
DrO
Member:
Kalypso

Posted on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - 4:42 pm:

Donald, Dr. O,
Thanks for the info on the Blind Horses group. I've tried the BL Solution, but had little luck getting him to eat it. So finicky.
I missed the medicine section on aspirin. Thanks for pointing it out to me. We're trying to figure out what to do about the aspirin treatment, with all this new information.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 5:37 am:

I think the aspirin thing is a tough one. With the short half life I am not much of a believer but there are those who think they see a result. For those having frequent reoccurence I figure it is worth a try.
DrO
Member:
Lilo

Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 1:44 pm:

This is the first time I have seen worming (Ivermectin) implicated in precipitating a flare-up of uveitis. I recently de-wormed both my horses with Zimectrin Gold. Two weeks later the gelding had a very painful eye infection, that came on rather suddenly. The vet (not my regular vet) diagnosed a plugged tear duct and opened the tear duct by flushing it. The eye improved rapidly, however, there is still a discharge and a slight swelling below the eye occasionally. Now I am concerned that we are dealing with recurrent uveitis. Is it a common occurence that ivermectin dewormers cause a flare-up of ERU?
Thanks for any information,
Lilo
Member:
Gafarm

Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 4:47 pm:

Lilo,
It's not actually the Ivermectin wormer that is the problem. ERU is an Auto-Immune disorder where the immune system goes haywire and attacks itself. The wormer can cause an over kill of parasites and it's the over kill that actaully triggers the immune system response. The best way to avoid that with a horse that is known to have the auto immune disorder is to worm more often to avoid a large kill of parasites all at once. The reason that people once blamed the wormer was because it did such a good job and would cause an over kill with a badly infested horse.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 7:41 am:

I find Donald's comments about the result of killing worms and a trigger for ERU are somewhat speculative and do not know of anything in the scientific literature to directly support them. There is another idea and that is onchocerca larvae can often be found in the eyes and killing them off may cause inflammation. I do agree completely with his conclusions however horses, with or without ERU, should be dewormed well to prevent a buildup of parasite larvae.
DrO
Member:
Ribbons

Posted on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 10:10 pm:

Kasey,
I have a very similar story with a "wormy" mare I bought four years ago. After two initials bouts, I put her on aspirin therapy and daily wormer with ivermectin twice a year. She can't tolerate bute, so bute and ivermectin isn't an option. It has been over three years since the last episode. I have no idea if this therapy really is responsible for her being episode free as she also tested positive for lepto, but so far so good.
Member:
Lilo

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 1, 2004 - 1:53 pm:

Hello all,

Thanks for the information. It turned out that in my gelding's case it was not likely to be ERU -rather just an acute inflammation, that cleared up rapidly with antibiotic ointment. That is good news to me, since I did have a gelding (whom we unfortunately lost to cancer) who had completely lost his eyesight in one eye due to ERU.
Lilo
Member:
122756

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 28, 2004 - 6:49 pm:

hi-Sorry to get in on this conversation a bit belatedly.

I have an appy mare with ERU...we've had her for almost 10 years, and she's not had a flare for (knock on wood) over 2 years. She did not have ERU symptoms until we first started using moxidectin (quest). I've had her on an 8 week rotation of strongid paste and ivermectin for the past 2 years. I've also had her on aspirin therapy for several years...a very small dose of 10 aspirin/day, mixed in with her evening supplement. It's probably more of a placebo effect for me than any benefit for her, but I'm not about to rock the boat now! I buy aspirin in bulk at Costco,but you can also buy generic store brands at most grocery stores for minimal cost.

I take precautions, such as using fly-masks for eye protection on windy, dusty, sunny days, even in the winter, (although those conditions are certainly not common in Eastern Washington during those months!) I may just be nuts, but I really do think her immune system reacted to the moxidectin, and not necessarily an overkill of parasite--I would find that hard to believe in her case as I've always been diligent about rotational worming and good turnout practices.
Just my 2cent contribution!
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