Tape Worms

[dgrminis]

Last Friday (the 19th) I got 3 new minis, an 8 year old stallion, a 4 year old mare and her 5 1/2 month colt. Well I dewormed them all this friday (the 26th) with Ivermectin. Today when I was out there the colt acted like he didnt feel really well -- kinda like his tummy was bothering him but he pooped several times and were all normal so didnt think colic -- well this evening I was out there checking him again and I lifted his tail to check his butt and he had a tape worm hanging from his butt.. I went ahead and pulled it out as it didnt look very comfy. It was dead and was about 7 inches long but I am sure that is what it was. Do I need to deworm him again with the Ivermectin and if so when?? I havent ever had any with a tape worm (at least that I knew) but he seems to feel ALOT better now -- he was running around and playing again and acting normal.. But I want to make sure that we get them all for sure.

Oh and does him having one mean that the mare and stallion might have them also since they came from the same place?? I dewormed them the same time but havent seen anything from them - worm wise...

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tucker]

Yes worm them all dont matter if others seem to be fine. they all need to be wormed.

 

[SkipsMom]

All the horses who share the pen should be dewormed w/ the same product on the same day to break the lifecycle of the parasite. Since one of the new horses has tapeworms I'd sure be deworming them all for tapeworms w/ Equimax. The Ivermectin was a good choice for a routine deworming but now that you have proof of tapeworms they need the product which targets that parasite.

Good luck with the new ones!

 

[dgrminis]

They are all 3 in together and they all 3 were dewormed on the same day with the same product. My question is now when do they need to be re-dewormed?? Normally I would do it again in 6 weeks but since I saw the tape worm I would think it needed to be done sooner. I am going to stop in the vets tomorrow and see if it has one specifically for tape worms - I will look for the Equimax that was mentioned in the store also. I always have Ivermectin and Pyrantel Palmoate on hand but I didnt see anything about tape worms on either of them.

I will do them all again at the same time -- just wasnt sure WHEN that should be??

Thanks Again!

 

[Minimor]

Are you sure it was a tape worm you saw? Coming from a colt 5 1/2 months old following a dose of ivermectin, it's more likely that the worm was an ascarid. Long and white and round? Ivermectin kills ascarids--it does not kill tapeworms. If what you found was a tapeworm, most likely it wasn't the entire worm, just a long section of segments (normally tapeworms shed individual segments, but I've had cats shed several segments still joined together, and had one hack up a big long tapeworm one time. ICK.) If what you found was a tapeworm it wouldn't be one long worm, it would be a bunchof segments joined together to make the worm you saw--the segments would be visible. There's also a good chance that when you pulled the worm out it would have come apart between segments.

Here we deworm foals every month, but in the case of one new weanling this fall, the colt was looking very potty & rough & though he'd been dewormed just prior to my bringing him home, I felt his big belly had to mean worms so I dewormed him again 2 weeks after we got him--and got ascarids. Within 2 weeks his pot belly went away & he looked much less rough.

 

[disneyhorse]

I'm going to agree with Minimor here... it sounds like an ascarid to me, too. They are white, long, smooth, and round. Tapeworms are flat and segmented. Ivermectin doesn't kill tapeworms, I didn't think?? Double dose of pyrantel pamoate might? Will have to check my notes on that...

Andrea

 

[Mona]

I agree, what you most probably saw was a roundworm. This is what they look like...

 

[Boinky]

none of the typical wormers on the market will kill tape worms EXCEPT the ones that specifically say they will such as equimax (praziquantel the active ingredient that kills tapeworms) or the zemectric gold, Tapecare plus, ques plus gel to name a few. make sure to read to see if it say's it will kill tape worms. Like i said praziquantel usually is the active ingerdient in horse dewormers that kills tapes. It wouldn't hurt to get one of these wormers with Ivermectin AND the tape wormer and re-do the worming to kill the tape worms too.

As someone else mentioned i doubt it was a tape worm if you could pull it out whole but it never hurts to worm for them too if they seem to be wormy in general!

 

[shelia]

i thought it was dangerous to worm too often because the poison is still in there system? Shouldn't she wait a month before doing it again?

Shelia

 

[Mona]

i thought it was dangerous to worm too often because the poison is still in there system? Shouldn't she wait a month before doing it again?
Shelia

Actually Sheila, no, I don't think so. Just this Fall, I found a worm in my weanling colt's manure. The colts had been wormed already a couple times when I found the worm. I freaked out when I saw it, and dewormed them with a STONG dose immediately. I took the worm to the vet, not knowing what type it was, or if it was even from the horse, as it was not IN the manure, but just next to it. I left it there with the vet techs to find out what type of worm it was. They were supposed to show him when he returned from lunch, but I never did hear back from them.

About 2 weeks later, I had found ANOTHER one! By this time, the one colt was gone, so I know it came from the one still here.(I was picking up poop twice daily from his pen) This time it was IN the manure! Again, I took it(manure pile and all) to the vet. They sent it all to the lab to give me a definate answer. It was a roundworm, and the rest of the manure showed only one egg, so I have no idea why he was pooping them out. I truthfully, expected him to be LOADED with them, after seeing the first one!

Anyway, my Vet said that they are on a 2 week cycle, and that I could safely deworm him every week for a full month to make sure we got all stages. I do so, with no ill effects, and I double dosed each time. It was ivermectin, so I knew I was safe to dose heavy.

 

[shelia]

Wow! You did that on a weanling and had no ill effects! I thought Ivermectin killed all stages. I guess it doesn't take care of the eggs though. I also thought Ivermectin stayed in the system longer. I suppose you treated him with probios the whole time to keep him from having a bacteria imbalance in his digestive system?

Shelia

 

[Mona]

I suppose you treated him with probios the whole time to keep him from having a bacteria imbalance in his digestive system?

No, actually I never. I have never thought about that, nor heard this before. I just don't see how killing worms would destroy the bacteria in his gut? I am not saying it dosn't, but as I said, he showed no ill effects whatsoever.

 

[Boinky]

ivermectin is a high tollerance drug. Even my vet has said that. You can overdose them by several times their normal dose with little to no side effects. the paper i have sitting here from the equimax box said in the studies they did 3X the dose on mares every 2 weeks throughout breeding pregnancy and lactation and they did find they had a higher rate of colic compaired to the controll group..but lets face it that is ALOT of wormer to have pumped into a horse over that amount of time and quite frankly with that much pesticides going into them i'd have expected alot more problems....

it also says that 3-4 week old foals were treated at 10X dose once and and loose watery stools were observed on post treatment days 1,2,and 5-9 in one foal. These signes resolved without treatment by day 10 and no other foals were affected.

Now all that being said i'm not a big one for doing wormer quite as much as the wormer companies suggest because i feel there is a lot of pesticides going into the animal but i do do them 3-4 times a year and if needed more i would. the example above is A lot higher dosage than we are talking about doing a week later in the case here on the forum. with minimal side effects. I'd take the chance of another dosage if i thought that animal had worms and needed it.

 

[Miniv]

If your colt is expelling worms like that..........I'd worm again in 2 weeks and if it were me, I'd do Ivermectin Gold, to cover the possibility of tape worms.

Yes, Ivermectin has a huge "fudge factor", so you shouldn't have a problem.

MA

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Life cycle of most worms is ten days so the Vet was not far out with two weeks!

Praziquantel is the chemical of choice for tapeworms but I agree this does not sound like tapeworm - I have had a horse with tapes and I have seen tapes on dogs- it is like a grain of rice- that is the official description.

When the animal has a burden that has been killed the only thing I can liken the dead tape to is a sausage skin- imagine a load of empty sausage skins all crumpled up together- really REALLY gross, trust me!!

YUK!

I do not give pro-bios- I never have, after any routine worming.

If the horse was sick or malnourished I would do so, but normal healthy horses replenish all their gut flora fairly quickly without any help.

I would do the Fenbendazole (Panacur) five day course on this horse, that should get everything except tapes, then I would wait ten days and use a combi Praziquantel and Ivermectin wormer which will get anything that is left.

This should leave you with a squeaky clean gut!!

I would, to be safe, have a faecal done a month later.

 

[HGFarm]

I agree with all the above and yes, a very large dose of ivermectin is safe- I found out by accident!! :new_shocked: Freaked when it first came out- was worming a full sized horse colt and the dosage ring didnt catch and he got the WHOLE thing!!! About four times what he should have. Vet laughed and said the worst thing he MIGHT get was diarhea and it would certainly get rid of the worms! LOL

I would do them again in 10 days to two weeks and then again after that- same time frame. There is an ivermectin that has the stuff for tape worms in it too, but I agree, sounds like the big roundworms. YUCK!!

 

[barefoot]

I know in some large horses worming definately affects the gut and hoof. Good flora is killed off and then we get mostly mild inflamation in the hoof for about 10 days after. If I have clients with some soreness I ask has he been vaccinated or wormed in the last 10days. Probiotics help. I always give probios before and after worming , etc.

I had a severly laminatic allergic horse I could only give the natural wormers too. ie, N.O.M.S.

Emma

I need spell check!!!!!!

 

[dgrminis]

Just got home from work..

Thank you for some wonderful answers.. I am not positive it was a tape worm -- it was a white round worm and it kinda resembled the picture posted of the other kind of worm -- I had a dog wormer box here and it had pictures and the closest I thought it looked like was a tape but I dont know -- it could have easily been what you all are saying

I will redo the deworming in 2 weeks and do a fecal then as well... I had no idea what to think when I saw it.

Thanks again for all the info.

 

[SkipsMom]

Actually, to get the best bang for your buck go ahead and have fecals run before you deworm next time. The info from that will help you select the best product for your lil guys and give you an idea of what load of parasites they might still be carrying. From there you can put them on your regular deworming program.

Good luck!

 

[Boinky]

DGR another thing i forgot to mention and i noticed no one else did..but those round worms like the photo's posted can get VERY long. i dont' think i've ever had them in my horses that i've seen but when we deworm our puppy litters (even ones from litters that the bitch was wormed during, and after pregnancy) i'll find very LOOOONG ones. I know i've found some coiled up that were probably close to 1 foot long..and these are just in puppies that are 5 weeks old (not sure how long it takes worms to grow but that doesn't seem like a very long time!)