Fwd: [Fwd: Worming Horses]

["Carolyn Burgess" <carolyn_burgess@hotmail.com>]

Here's more from Katie, the ridecamp reader who forwarded the last article 
about wormer toxicity.  This is too good not to share.

Carolyn Burgess


>
>     >Dr. Laird Laurence of Texas is nationally recognized for his 
>expertise
>     >on
>     >internal parasite control and most recently for his work on encysted
>     >larvicidal treatments for cyathostomosis, a condition that leads to 
>poor
>     >performance and colic in horses.
>     >
>     >Dr. Laird devoted most of his discussion to the life-cycle of the 
>small
>     >strongyle worm.  When your horse goes out to graze in the pasture or
>     >picks
>     >around in his stall or paddock, he is ingesting thousands and 
>thousands
>     >of
>     >larvae that can stay alive on the ground for up to a year.  The 
>little
>     >larvae move along your horses digestive tract until it comes to his
>     >cecum
>     >and colon.  Then it penetrates the wall of the cecum or colon and 
>stays
>     >there for a minimum of 45-60 days and as long as 2 to 3 years.
>     >Impossible,
>     >you think.  You worm religiously every 8 weeks, right?  There is no 
>way
>     >those larvae can live in there if you worm every 8 weeks.  Besides,
>     >there
>     >are plenty of wormers that kill small strongyles.  Heck, they ALL 
>kill
>     >small strongyles.  Right?
>     >
>     >Right.....However they only kill the ADULT worms or larvae that have 
>not
>     >yet burrowed into the lining of the cecum and colon of your horse.
>     >These
>     >larvae are known as encysted larvae, and Dr. Laurence likened them to 
>a
>     >hibernating bear.  He explained that they have a very, very slow
>     >metabolism.  When you worm your horse, that wormer is in your horse's
>     >gut
>     >for about 18 hours.  Because the encysted larvae have a very slow
>     >metabolism, the wormer simply doesn't do the job over an 18 hour
>     >period.  It doesn't effect the little guys.  So, the encysted larvae 
>sit
>     >there making waste in the lining of your horse's gut, and when they
>     >finally
>     >decide to emerge into your horses stomach, they leave behind all this
>     >cellular debris, and this is when your horse can get sick.  This
>     >condition
>     >is known as Cyathostomosis.  Symptoms can include:
>     >
>     >Cow manure-like diarrhea
>     >
>     >Mild reoccuring colic (2-3 days)
>     >
>     >Listless, weak
>     >
>     >Rapid and dramatic weight loss
>     >
>     >Peripheral edema (swollen legs)
>     >
>     >May or may not be eating
>     >
>     >So you think, I'm a smart and experienced horse owner.  I know when 
>to
>     >do a
>     >fecal egg count.  Well, here's the interesting part of trying to
>     >diagnose
>     >this condition.  If you worm your horse every 8 weeks, your fecal egg
>     >count
>     >will very likely come up a big zero -- but your horse can still have
>     >hundreds of thousands of encysted larvae.  Okay, you say you use a 
>daily
>     >wormer, such as Strongid C.  Couldn't have "encysted
>     >larvae".  Right?  Wrong!  Okay you used the in\vermectin, do the 
>daily
>     >wormer every day, except when you were at the show last month, you
>     >forgot
>     >to bring it with you, but that was only 2 crumby days.  Guess what?
>     >your
>     >horse ingested thousands and thousands of larvae those two crumby 
>days,
>     >and
>     >since Strongid C only kills the larvae on the way to the cecum and
>     >colon,
>     >once the little cuties have encysted, your daily wormer has no effect 
>on
>     >them.  Besides, what about all the encysted larvae that were already
>     >there
>     >before you started using Strongid C?  Remember, they can live in your
>     >horse
>     >for 2 to 3 years.
>     >
>     >Treatment:  Two times the normal dosage of Panacur wormer for five
>     >consecutive days.
>     >
>     >He explained what LD 50 means.  LD stands for Lethal Dose.  50 stands
>     >for
>     >50%.  LD50 means the dosage of medication that will kill 50% of the
>     >animals
>     >taking it.  Ivermectin has an LD 50 of 15.  This means that if you 
>gave
>     >10
>     >horses 15 tubes of ivermectin wormer all at one time, it would be 
>likely
>     >that 5 of those 10 horses would die. Quest, has an LD 50 of only 3.  
>So,
>     >if
>     >you gave 10 horses 3 Quest wormers, 5 would probably die.
>     >
>     >Well, interestingly, Panacur just doesn't kill a horse, no matter how
>     >much
>     >of the stuff you give it.  Therefore, that hibernating baby worm that
>     >has
>     >burrowed into the lining of your horse's gut gets to have the livin'
>     >daylights kicked out of it with a double dose of Panacur for 5 days 
>and
>     >it
>     >won't hurt your horse.  But it will kill all of those encysted larvae
>     >and
>     >in a nutshell, if you use Panacur twice a year along with a regular
>     >worming
>     >program every 8 weeks, rotating the type of wormers, you will have
>     >yourself
>     >an Optimal de worming program.
>     >
>     >He stressed that a high performance horse will benefit tremendously 
>from
>     >the treatment.
>

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