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  Discussion on Cushings horse with tapes
Author Message
Member:
ccet

Posted on Saturday, Apr 12, 2008 - 11:28 am:

Dr. O,

I have a cushings, insulin resistent, and hypothyroid horse that failed his first fecal. The vet suggested panacur of 5 days. So I did that and 4 weeks later refecaled. Results on a quarter of the slide were 3 tapes and 1 pinworm. I am concerned about cleaning this up in the easiest way for this horse that is 25. Would you suggest using the ivemectin praziquantel combo - meaning the equimax, eqvalan gold or the zimectin gold. My vethas suggested the quest plus and I am not trusting of that. My impression is that that might be too toxic for him and set me in direct invitation to colic. What do you think? Can I give him a half dose one day and the other half the next day - is that as effective? Please help
Member:
scooter

Posted on Saturday, Apr 12, 2008 - 12:00 pm:

Hi Maria, I'm sure Dr.O. will correct me if wrong, but the panacur power pac doesn't take care of tapes. If you are afraid he has a heavy tape load I think I would try the 2x dose of srongid and then go with something with the praziquantel. That's what I did with my cushings horse and had no problems. I used equimax (app) a month after the double dose of strongid and fecal was good.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Apr 13, 2008 - 11:16 am:

Hello Maria,
Of course he is not truly hypothyroid as this is practically a nonexistent disease in adult horses but that is neither here nor there for the problem you are discussing. I think the moxidectin (Quest) in combination with the praziquantel would be fine for the tapes if your horse is in moderate or better body condition. If thin or worse Diane's suggestion good.

Your post gives me the perfect introduction to a topic I am working on: there is now strong evidence that roundworms and pinworms are becoming increasingly resistant to both our avermectins to the point of them being almost ineffective against them in some populations. I am currently working with a farm that developed a significant pinworm infection while using ivermectin and moxidectin as described in one or deworming schedules. Like your horse the problem developed in older individuals who show evidence of metabolic synDrOme (actually a fairly normal state for many Morgans) on top of Cushings.

So the question for you is, "will the avermectin control the pinworms?". It is surprising the high dose 5 day treatment with fendendazole did not. It is also surprising that you could locate a pinworm egg in the fecal, they are not normally found in the stools (see Diseases of Horses » Colic, Diarrhea, GI Tract » Parasites and Worms » Pinworms (Oxyuris)). The only effective way we found of monitoring infection is
  • monitoring the perianal area for egg masses
  • are they scratching their butts
  • best so far: following a deworming are there adults in the stool over the next 2 days.
These too are covered in the article on pinworms.
DrO
Member:
ccet

Posted on Monday, Apr 14, 2008 - 10:33 pm:

Are you suggesting to worm him with both wormers or justthe quest?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 15, 2008 - 6:07 am:

Maria, I am not sure which two dewormers you are talking about but see the second sentence in the above post for my specific recommendation. The rest of the post deals with the question of what to do about monitoring the pinworms following that deworming.
DrO
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