Re: Strongid C

["Karen Steenhof" <steenhof@cyberhighway.net>]

>This would be a good use of it--but I would recommend getting clear off of
it
>during the season.  Someone else brought up anemia--I have also seen a few
>horses on it develop anemia, and have had riders take them off of it for
that
>reason, too.  The warning sign was poor recoveries--no wonder, one horse
had
>about a third the PCV he should have had.
>
>Heidi Smith, DVM--Sagehill Arabians (Oregon)
>

I don't think Heidi was referring to my horse in this post (even though she
knows him well), but it describes precisely a problem we had back in 1994.
I've brought this up about every year or so on whenever the topic comes up
on ridecamp.  Here's the story:

In 1994 after about 3 summers on Strongid C, my gelding was "not himself"
after 50 mile rides.  (He was experienced and should have been fit for
longer distances.)  He always met completion criteria, but an hour after the
ride, his pulse would spike back up into the high 60s or so.  Blood work
showed him to be anemic.  The vets I
talked to had all heard anecdotal cases of anemia in horses who had been on
strongid c for awhile, but no research had been done at the time.  I took
him off the strongid c, and he started to get better.  It took about 6
weeks before he was "himself" again.  The following year he completed over
1100 miles of endurance with no problems and none of the symptoms
(out of gas, basically) that we saw in 1994.

I've also heard rumors that strongid C has been implicated in anterior
enteritis colics (another problem that this same gelding experienced).
Anyone have any information on this?

Karen Steenhof
Boise, Idaho
steenhof@cyberhighway.net