Yes, Truman, I can testify to one of those incidents. It is true that
there has been no research on detrimental effects of Strongid C--only
an increasing amount of anecdotal evidence.
In my horse's case, it took 3 years of use for any problem to
show up. At first, I was happy with Strongid C because Thorn held
his weight better and his coat looked nicer.
In 1994, Thorn started looking awful about an hour after each of his
50-mile rides. This is a horse that already had 4000 miles of endurance (much
of it on distances longer than 50 miles) and was getting 30
miles of regular conditioning each week. At first I attributed it to
being the first ride of the year, then to going too fast. But when it
continued to happen at a very conservative pace, I had blood drawn.
Sure enough, he was anemic!!! Two vets at the June ride where I
finally decided to do bloodwork suggested that I discontinue STrongid-C.
The vets were Dr. Ray Randall of Montana and Dr. Liz Scott of Boise
Idaho. Both of them had been seeing/hearing of cases where prolonged use of strongid c
was associated with anemia. I stopped using strongid C then and
there. My horse got better and better with each ride (about 1
50-miler a month). I didn't change vitamins or supplements during
this period.
By September, Thorn's blood work was back to normal.
In 1995, he had his best year ever--1190 miles of competition. I know
that this proves nothing, but you won't catch me using Strongid C on
an endurance horse again!
Karen Steenhof
Boise, Idaho