Meningeal worms (brain worms)

[MiniforFaith]

I have had my first experience with "brain worms".. I am helping care for our landlords' daughter's Alpaca's.. The one female became very ill Thrus. night, and could not even walk.. They vet told them that it was the brain worm.. I have read up on them some, but I was wondering if horses-- miniature or big-- also get these? I was giving her two shots a day, wormers, and lots of other stuff.. Our landlords daughter is taking her to her house so she can care for her now. There was another one come down with it.. Or if anyone has dealt with them, what has the outcome been.. The female Alpaca was doing so much better last night.. She is back to walking, eating and everything..

 

[RobinRTrueJoy]

I have never heard of any such thing in regards to mini horses.

My sister managed a llama and alpaca farm for many years. I learned from her that these brain worms that you mentioned can be a common occurance if proper adequate worming is not kept up with in llamas and alpacas. It seems like you can't miss or delay doses with these creatures. Also proper dosages are really important. Many times if worming wasn't kept up with really well on these animals BEFORE you bought them, just missing a dose would trigger aproblem.

Barb used to be strict and vigilant in her worming routine at the farm.

Once she was out of work for major surgery and left the schedule to the owners lazy daughter, as that is what she was told to do. Despite strict instructions and explanations of why it needed to be done as instructed, no woming was done for all the many months that Barb was out of work. Several llamas came down with these meningeal worms and several did not survive.

I am glad that the one you mentioned did. Barb says they are a lot touchier than most people think, especially alpacas.

I volunteered at a major university animal hospital equine nicu andthere were lots of alpacas at times. Most died, many with liver disease and some with meningeal worms.

Robin

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

Meningeal worm is a nasty disease. When we bought our llamas in PA we were told to deworm them once a year. We lost, well, almost ALL of them to this. We didn't know. Then our Vet told us they needed done every month in the summer. We didn't lose any more. Now that we live in Texas where it is very dry and pretty much deer-free, we haven't lost any more.

The meningeal worm is a parasite carried by white tail deer. They pass it out in their droppings, which are eaten by slugs. The llamas then eat the slugs. It does no harm to the deer, but gets "lost" in the llama/alpaca nervous system, where it destroys their brain.

It does NOT affect horses at all, so rest easy.

For the llama/alpaca, they can recover from it ONCE. If they get it again they are pretty much doomed. That's our lesson. Keep them dewormed with Ivermectin EVERY month. Ivermectin is the only thing that kills it.

Lucy

 

[ThreeCFarm]

Sorry this is OT, but llamas eat slugs???? Wow, I never would have guessed.

 

[Katiean]

Our handicaped emu also died from a brain worm that was spred by wild birds. No wormers for an emu. It did not transfer to the goat, rabbits or horses. However, I did find a clear worm in the rabbits water dishes. I was able to worm the whole hurd of rabbits.

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

Sorry this is OT, but llamas eat slugs???? Wow, I never would have guessed.

Llamas are browsers and eat leaves and such- where slugs like to hide. barf.

Lucy