Equine Pinworm - an update on how it effects your horse

Pinworm in horses

Pinworm (Oxyuris equi) burden is becoming an increasing problem for UK horse owners. Pinworm is perhaps less harmful then many parasites but more of a nuisance and an irritant as its life cycle involves laying eggs externally on the horses anus. Equine Pinworm it is becoming more difficult to eliminate. The female can grow up to approximately 10cm in length and are white in colour. They reside in the large intestine and attach themselves to the intestinal wall to ingest the contents for food.

Adults produce eggs approximately 5 months after the initial infection which are found on the pasture, in faeces, contaminated water fences and walls.

Eggs are ingested by the horse and L3 larvae are released in the small intestine, they then migrate to the large intestine to develop into the mucosa to L4 larvae which then emerge and mature into adults. The female adults then migrate from the large intestine to the anus where they lay eggs in clumps in a sticky substance on the skin causing irritation around the anus leading to tail rubbing.  These can be removed on a daily basis by cleansing the area around the tail, anus and hindquarters with warm diluted disinfectant.

On occasion the actual female worms can be seen in the process of egg laying. She can lay up to 60,000 eggs per day. The eggs are laid in a sticky substance, which is an irritant to the horse

Pinworm eggs do not show up very well on regular fecal exams because eggs tend to remain around the anus rather than being passed in faeces. Sometimes the female can be physically seen protruding from the anus in the process of laying her eggs. A skin scrape or sticky tape test in the area around the anus may be carried out by a vet.

The most common sign of pinworm infection is tail itching or rubbing. The itching is caused by the eggs being deposited around the anus. There are other things that can cause tail rubbing as well, so an itchy tail does always mean there are pinworms present. 

Active ingredients that treat for adult and pinworm larvae are Moxidectin, Ivermectin, Febendazole and Mebendazole with Pyrantel treating adults only.

Not all brands are licensed so care needs to be taken by checking the brand’s label.

The life cycle of the pinworm is longer than most other worms and immature stages of the worm are less sensitive to treatment which all in all could mean that infestations could take a year to clear up.

It was thought that older horses had a degree of natural immunity to pinworm, but infections are now being seen regularly in older horses as well as young. This change has been accompanied by a shortened time between infection and egg production, and the changing behaviour of the parasite could be causing a rise in stubborn infections. 

Extra care should be taken in the stable environment to help reduce the risk of re-contamination from buckets, feed bowls, haynets and rugs etc. Do not share grooming brushes.  A thorough clean with a heavy duty disinfectant in these areas and most importantly the stable after removing all bedding which should deposited far away from the contaminated stable immediately before it can be walked on by other horses or stable staff. Good stable cleanliness will help and is always a good idea in areas of animal care and management. Also don’t forget your own clothing as the eggs can attach themselves to gloves for example and thereby easily transferred to another part of the stable or other horses.

SH Wetherald E-SQP

Saturday, 12 April 2014

Help on hand with your horse and pet worming

My name is Simon Wetherald and I am the senior E-SQP at wormers-direct.co.uk. I am ably assisted by both my long term employee Miss Kelly Rothery who is also an E-SQP. and the rest of the team here in Leeds.

An SQP is a category of professionally qualified persons who are entitled to prescribe and/or supply certain veterinary medicinal products under the Veterinary Medicines Regulations. It is the duty of an SQP to ensure that the statutory requirements in respect of the prescription and/or supply of certain veterinary medicinal products are respected.

At wormers-direct.co.uk we have a passion for knowledge and further learning with regard to managing animal health planning and helping our clients to look after their horses and pets and welcome your calls and questions at any time.

There is a myriad of articles, ideas, theories, conclusions, speculations and conflicting advice out in the public domain about worming horses and we strive to improve our own education in these fields by conducting regular continual professional development and hopefully collating all the help and information that is out there ready to pass onto our clients.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any issues you have about worming or arranging testing your animals no matter how trivial or complicated and we will strive to answer your queries with unbiased advice.

I am lucky enough to be the Virbac E-SQP of the year for 2013 and my company trading as wormers-direct.co.uk wholly owned by myself is Bardsey Mills Ltd.

Bardsey Mills Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1024711 wormers-direct is a trading name of Bardsey Mills Limited who are member of the British Equestrian Trade Association (membership number 775) Our VAT registration number is 169 1690 34 Registered office at Unit 1E Woodside Trading Estate  Low Lane Horsforth  Leeds LS18 5NY
Wormers-direct.co.uk Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 6081924
Registered office at Unit 1E Woodside Trading Estate  Low Lane Horsforth  Leeds LS18 5NY

Call on free-phone 0800 331 7758 or if you have minutes on your mobile call free on 0333 320 0510

Pinworm in horses

Yet again 2013 is proving to be another year when equine Pinworm burden is becoming more widely reported by UK horse owners. Pinworm (Oxyuris equi) is not generally thought to be harmful as they pass through the intestine but more of a nuisance and an irritant when the female pinworm lays her eggs around the horse’s anus. The female can grow up to approximately 10cm in length and are white in colour. They reside in the large intestine and attach themselves to the intestinal wall to ingest the contents for food. Adults produce eggs approximately 5 months after the initial infection. Eggs are laid around the anus and within a few hours of being laid they develop into embryos and are infective in 4-5 days.  On occasion the actual female worms can be seen in the process of egg laying. Eggs find their way onto the pasture, into water and feed supplies, on fences, stables and walls and onto grooming kits

Eggs are ingested by the horse and L3 larvae are released in the small intestine, they then migrate to the large intestine to develop into the mucosa to L4 larvae which then emerge and mature into adults. The female adults then migrate from the large intestine to the anus where they lay eggs in clumps in a sticky substance on the skin causing irritation around the anus leading to tail rubbing.  These can be removed on a daily basis by cleansing the area around the tail, anus and hindquarters with warm diluted disinfectant The pinworm likes to emerge in the night to lay eggs so cleaning first thing in the morning is best. The recent prevalence of pinworm burden which  be in some manner due to the different strategies recently introduced involving worming horses so treating for pinworm needs to be considered when creating a animal health plan..

Active ingredients that treat for adult and pinworm larvae are Moxidectin, Ivermectin, Febendazole and Mebendazole with Pyrantel treating adults only.

Not all brands are licensed so care needs to be taken by checking the brand’s label.

Extra care should be taken in the stable environment to help reduce the risk of re-contamination from buckets, feed bowls, haynets and rugs etc.  A thorough clean with a disinfectant in these areas and most importantly the stable after removing all bedding will help and is always a good idea in areas of animal care and management. Do not share grooming brushes.

SH Wetherald

E-SQP

www.wormers-direct.co.uk

advice@wormers-direct.co.uk

0844 808 6070

Worming horses to treat for encysted small redworm

Worming experts at Pfizer Animal Health are alarmed about the results of the National Equine Health Survey (NEHS) May 2012 survey

A recent survey of horse owners has shown that nearly half are not worming their horses correctly when it comes to treating encysted small redworm. Encysted small redworm (small strongles/cyathostomes) are the most common worms found in horses today and may account up to 90% of the redworm burden in the horse ¹. The recent survey has revealed that treatment for encysted small redworm is only been done by about half of the survey respondents.

The survey which was conducted in May 2012 as part of the National Equine Health Survey (NEHS) showed that out of 1095 respondents only 505 had wormed their horse with an effective product for the control of encysted small redworm. The remainder had either used a product that they thought treated encysted small redworm when in fact it did not or they simply did not worm their horse or pony at all. The most common reason for not treating for encysted small redworm was that the horse had had a clear faecal egg count.

“Encysted small redworm won’t show up in a standard faecal worm egg count – even if the horse has shown a negative or low count it could still be harbouring several million encysted small redworms ², which can present a potentially fatal health risk to the horse” says Wendy Talbot Pfizer’s vet advisor.

Encysted small redworm can remain dormant inside a horse for up to 2 years, but usually develop and emerge from the gut wall all at the same time in the early spring. In severe infestations mass emergence can lead to a disease syndrome known as “Larval cyathostominosis” causing diarrhoea and colic with up to a 50% mortality rate³.

It is most important to use a wormer containing moxidectin or a 5 day fenbendazole course licensed to treat encysted small redworm. It is important to remember that there is now widespread resistance to fenbendazole in parasite populations⁴, whereas moxidectin has been shown to be effective against benzimidazole resistant worms and has a 13 week recommended dosing interval

1          Bairden K. et al (2001) Veterinary Record 148, 138-141
2          Dowdall S. et al (2002) Veterinary Parasitology 106, 225-242
3          McWilliam H. et al (2010) International Journal for Parasitology 40, 265-275
4          Matthews JB (2008) An update on cyathostomins: Anthelmintic resistance and worm control. Equine Vet. Education 20 552-560

Buying Medicines on the Internet

Here is an extract of the current text on the VMD’s website regarding the newly introduced Accredited Internet retailer Scheme. We at www.wormers-direct.co.uk are delighted to be included on that list as we have always strived to maintain not only a great customer service but one that works within all legislation and codes of conduct. As we are totally committed to such a course of action we ask you to bear with us when filling in your order forms for our SQP’s to scrutinise.

“The Accredited Internet Retailer Scheme is the VMD's way of facilitating self regulation by UK based internet retailers selling veterinary medicines. It is a response to concerns about the increase in the number of internet retailers and the extent to which they comply with the Veterinary Medicines Regulations (VMR). Whilst the majority of websites based in the UK are run by qualified professionals, some sites breach the VMR by selling veterinary medicines:

• without the advice of a veterinary surgeon, pharmacist or Suitably Qualified Person
• that are not authorised for use in animals in the UK.

The VMD is issuing internet retailers who have met the accreditation scheme's requirements with a logo to indicate their accreditation. Internet retailers can then display the logo on their website. The logo contains a unique number. Customers can confirm accreditation by clicking on the logo to access the internet retailer database on the VMD's website.

The VMD's Accredited Internet Retailer Scheme will help you as an on-line buyer of veterinary medicines by:

• showing you that the retailer has voluntarily applied for and has been granted accreditation
• confirming that the VMD has inspected the website and found that it complies with the Accreditation Scheme's requirements and the Veterinary Medicines Regulations
• reducing the risk of you buying unauthorised veterinary medicines
• reducing the risk of you buying inappropriate or ineffective veterinary medicines for your animals.”

By clicking here you will be taken to our home page and the VMD accreditation logo is on the right hand side of the page, click it to view our individual accreditation

    SH Wetherald E-SQP

Fleas 

There has certainly been an explosion of flea bites and infestations this year mainly due to the weather, wet and mild is meat and drink to fleas, but when you are treating your actual pets don't forget to treat the environment as well.
View a suitable spray here 

If there is a cat or dog in your house there are most certainly fleas as well. Adult fleas live on pets feeding on the blood, breeding and laying up to 50 eggs per day. The adult egg population represents only about 5% of the total the rest being eggs and developing larvae. Your pets acts as the distributor for these eggs kindly depositing them on their travels to end up in soft furnishings, carpets bedding and also in your car. The larvae like it dark, they are blind and worm like feeding on such things as human skin scales or flea faeces. They remain like this until they pupate. The pupae are the cocoons from which the adult will eventually hatch perhaps triggered by central heating or humidity. Mere vibration from humans and pets sometimes trigger the pupae to hatch into hungry adult fleas looking for a tasty meal of blood in as little as a week. Others not triggered to hatch may lay dormant for up to a year. Adults then lay eggs which develop into larvae then pupae and then the life cycle of the flea is complete.

As such a small proportion of the total flea population actually live on your pet it is absolutely vital to treat your home with  a household spray. Fleas are not only an irritant to your pets they can cause allergic skin reactions, skin lesions and infection. Also remember that the fleas can transmit tapeworm to your pets.

SH Wetherald E-SQP    Animal Medicines Advisor   www.facebook.com/wormers

Lungworm in horses (dictyocaulus arnfieldi)

                                       

The lifecycle of lungworms is different to other nematodes as adults settle in the lungs rather than the intestine. Eggs are laid then travel up the trachea, are swallowed and passed out in the faeces. Further development then takes place on the pasture, infective larvae are swallowed by horses or donkeys to further develop into egg laying adults.

It is extremely rare for lungworm larvae to develop to full maturity in horses as the horse is not a good host for that particular parasite.  Horses can be infected with lungworm but as they do not mature in to egg laying larvae in any numbers to sustain a population on the pastures.  Exceptions to this in horses can arise in very young or old horses and seriously depilated horses whose immune systems are impaired.

Up to 70% of donkeys carry lungworms often showing no clinical signs of infestation and it is in donkeys where the parasite reaches full maturity.  Donkeys do not always develop the symptomatic cough that is seen in horses but if horses are grazed along side donkeys then particular care must be taken to treat for lungworms accordingly with particular attention to foals as they can sustain permanent lung damage if infected.

Diagnosis can be done through the actual physical and clinical signs which might be moderate coughing,  a slightly increased respiratory rate or even severe persistent coughing and respiratory distress. Fecal egg counts can be used to determine lungworm levels but a sedimentation test is required so at least 3 times the amount of fecal matter needs to be supplied to the laboratory.

SH Wetherald E-SQP Animal Medicines Advisor simon@wormers-direct.co.uk www.facebook.com/wormers