Help, with a yearling needed

[beaminewbie]

Last winter my girlfriend and I rescued 11 minis, well she kept 4 of them and one of the yearling fillies has always got the runs, there is some form but very little. She is always messy in the rear and rear legs. She has been wormed and had shots, she is very cow hocked which I think is from her living conditions before, she was swimming in manure/mud and it took awhile for her to walk normal. Any suggestions on what could be causing this, she gets grass hay, a oat/corn mix and was on a mineral tub but I told her to take it out in case that was causing it. Could it be the water?

Thanks for any help, Heidi

 

[kaykay]

the mineral tub would be my first thought. we took ours out because it caused that in some of our horses. Are you sure you have gotten all of the worms?? Normally on a horse like this it takes a 5 day worm purge to get them all.

also i have one filly that gets the runs everytime she comes in heat. my vet feels shell outgrow it and its just a hormonal thing.

oops also wanted to add i would take the corn out!!! i never ever feed corn or corn products to my horses. just empty calories and the risk of mold being in the corn is not worth it to me

 

[beaminewbie]

Thanks, I have suggested to her to quit the corn, I will tell her again. I don't personaly use corn at all, bad experience with it! What do you mean by 5 day purge? She has been wormed numerous times, but I do wonder if she still has them, they were all in pretty bad shape when we got them. If she were in heat, I would think her stud who is in the next pen would react to her but he doesn't, I thought it might be heat also.

Heidi

 

[kaykay]

a worm purge is done by giving panacur or safeguard at a double dose for 3 or 5 consecutive days. This is really good for horses that have carried a large worm load to be sure they are all out. I know some who do this once a year on all their horses. I would consult your veternarian and see what they think. But i do think taking the corn out will also help

 

[Miniv]

Yep, nix the corn

. It could be the problem. A purge worming with Panacur won't hurt either.

And since she's a yearling, some corrective trimming may help at least some of the cow-hock problem as I doubt her growth plates would have closed yet.

Good luck and Kuddos for you and your friend taking in your "special" horses.

MA

 

[Songcatcher]

Last winter I had a mare that developed the runs. My first thought was to worm her. No difference. I wormed again. Still no improvement. Someone suggested that it might be ingested sand. I did a week long dose of Sand Clear, but it also dawned on me that this problem started about the same time I started feeding BOSS. I stopped that at the same time and the runs cleared up immediately. I will never know if it was the sand or the BOSS that was causing it, but so glad it was over.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Five day de-worming programme:-

Bottle of Panacur Safeguard (Fenbendazole)

Plastic syringe

Horse!!!

Dose at 1ml per 15lbs bodyweight (this is the double dose)

For five days

wait ten days (life cycle of most worms)

dose with correct for weight (NOT double dose) of Ivermectin based product

This will get everything except Tapeworms. In a horse like this , background history etc, I would also expect Tapes but would NOT do all worming together. I would wait another ten days and does with a Praziquantel based dewormer, this will get the Tapes. You MUST weigh a horse like this, the dosage is important. You can do very little harm by slightly overdosing with any of the products mentioned, but a world of harm by under-dosing. DO NOT USE QUEST OR ANY MOXIDECTIN BASED PRODUCT always read the labels carefully!!!

You must deworm all horses in the same area, no use just doing the one.

I had a filly like this and she cleared up when put out on good grazing and left alone, no feed whatsoever. It did reappear whenever she was stressed. If it does not clear up it would be worth having blood tests done to see if there is tissue damage from the worms, but I would get her thoroughly wormed first.

She could have a corn intolerance. I feed and have always fed, micronised Flaked Maize, but have occasionally had a horse that cannot take it. It also makes them very "hyper" so perhaps NOT the feed for this one??

 

[Jean_B]

One suggestion is to add a probiotic (live active cultures of GOOD bacteria) such as FastTrak or ProBios to get her gutt's bacteria back in sync. Obviously if she was a neglect case before you got her, and now that you are giving her good rations, her stomach is having problems adjusting...

And like the others said - GET RID OF THE CORN!! Corn should only be fed to feeder pigs and feeder cattle....animals that are supposed to be fattened up for slaughter. Not to horses.

And if the probiotic doesn't work, you should probably have a blood and stool work-up done by a veterinarian. I had a mare that had absolutely no reason for constant diahrrea - nothing in the blood work up, nothing in the stool. Was free of worms, etc. So we put her on Metronidazole (same thing as Flagyl for human colitis) for about 10 days and it worked like a charm. The only thing - it tastes HORRIBLE so I ground the tablets and mixed them with pancake syrup. She slurped them right up.