Re: Strongid C

[Roger Rittenhouse-VMAXEPT <vmaxept@cococo.net>]

Good reply Dr Trish.. I was waiting for an expert to respond. I hear
this bunk all the time  from 'few' drum pounders.

JUST NO REAL PROOF.. sort of like the homeopathic don't really work and
neither does oral gags.. right? 

I have been using this on my whole gang since it came on the market.

I heard these 'stories' within a year.. all horse problems were caused
by Strongid.
I checked with my vet -called Pfizer called New Bolton - when I lived in
PA. and other sources I trusted.. NOT ONE PROOF.

If this was so BAD then WHY are there no law suits against Pfizer?

over a million horses are probably on this stuff.  either pellets or
paste.

NOW I have just the opposite story.

My 16 yr old mare -the one who bombed at vet in at the OD50 this year--
the carbo-rat study.
She has been pro colic when younger- pre strongid days. She had bouts
with colic for various reasons - pellet feed, hard work a training ride
caused 2 short one, and a few bombs in endurance rides  only one came
up  as real colic  but that was most likely due to exhaustive horse sym.

So at the advice of my vet over 10 yrs ago we put the whole gang on this
NEW high price stuff- Strongid-C.
The mare NEVER coliced again.  And her blood work showed higher CBC
counts and she worked better finished stronger and kept her weight up.

Our previous worm program was Invermetim every 60 days.. a real posion
-right? I was really trashing their systems.. and they were NOT worm
FREE.

So after 3 months on strongid.. no worms.

After listening to the un proven stories I got caught up in the hysteria
and stopped feeding the strongid.. horses lost weight and they did not
work as well and the little mare got -pro-colic post race symptoms
again.
and we had a low level of worms. During this time I was encouraged to
try the 'natural' wormers.. diaitamaoues earth  (sp).. did not work.

Went back to Strongid. Called pfizer again and talked to then at the
events. And called other vets and knowledgeable persons--NO proven
problems 
This stuff is NOT absorbed by the horse. Tests show that 99.9% that went
in came out.. the less then 1% remained in the horse intestinal track 
BUT NEVER SHOWED in the blood.

SO after we moved to TN. .I heard this crap again.. more unproved drum
beating.. some stories did not make sense.
BUT I thought I would try to cut back on the dose level to see if I
could feed less and still get a good worm kill HA

Time is this June. Took my mare to OD she was on about 1/2 the
recommended dose level of strongid.
She gets a sort of trailer induced stress problem. blood test all normal
as well as CBC above normal and the WBC was low.. means NO infection. SO
I wrote off a medical problem.

Then it was thought I over dosed on electrolytes.. lets see I gave about
4 to 5 oz  that is scoops of Perf and Win over 14 hr trailer ride inc
stops .. she drank well all the way. looked great on arrival.
NOT an excessive amt for this area nor this horse.
The trip up was in the cold rain and at night- I suspect stress due to
hypo-thermia
(I have never had a problem related to electrolyte usage and I have
given much high does then this to this horse.)

We got her home - about 10 hrs from Troutville Va -sat in the HOT sun
for hours due to a truck wreck- gave about 4 oz of electrolytes on the
rtn trip. No problem upon arrival
I did  note she looked light and was not eating well. Over the next few
days she looked ok but a bit punky. Worked well but not really into it.

So we ran a mess of blood tests and just for grins a fecal from her and
others.

As expected all blood tests were normal BUT we had a mess of worms.

I hit them all with QUEST and after a week started on strongid again at
FULL dose levels based on weight. I cut off a number of cups at the
weight lines and put the names of the horses on each cup.

Noted the mare and the other older horse pick up weight with in a month.
Fecal test are now 0  no worms.

Mare is working like old times. albeit we missed a few races due to
self  inflicted injury of the knee.

We had hoped to try the Cosequine 50 but I don't think she will be ready
so the next scheduled event is Biltmore later this month.
We shall see.

Bottom line Strongid C has NOT CAUSED ANY noted problems in all 7 of our
horses. We have a 27 yr old on this down to my  7 yr old. They all look
great and show none of the reported problems.

Until I read a TRUE research study on the subject--that proves the
product causes the reported problems--
I will strongly recommend the use of this product to anyone - who wants
to keep their horse worm free AND maybe help the horse WITH a colic
problem.

Roger R