I was wondering how your guys were doing!
Your first guy must be a worm carrier…
I am posting this for my friend, “jm” who cannot log on:
After being directed to this thread from another board, I was almost convinced this is what has been affecting 2 maybe 3 of my 5 horses. I went ahead and double dosed the Equimax on the 2 suspected cases and gave the third a larger than normal dose, but not a double.
The 2 that I suspect are mother and daughter. The dam is 11 years old, Swedish/Trak warmblood. Her daughter, born on my farm, is now 5 and is Swedish/Trak/Dutch/TB. Both mares rub theirs ears beginning late spring until the cold sets in. They also both rub their manes in the exact same spot, around the C3/C4/C5. The daughter also will straddle small trees and rub her stomach and udder (insert “embarrased” emoticon here 
) Neither are excessively “itchy” but enough so to make it bother me and nothing topical over the years seems to help. I shampoo mane and tail with Head and Shoulders, have used MTG and Calm Coat - all to no avail. They may provide temporary relief, but the rubbing is back within 24 hours.
Anyway - to make a long story short, I double dosed yesterday and the 11 year old, my main riding/showing mare, presented with all 4 legs swollen/stocked up this a.m. They are still stocked up now. I rode her lightly today to see if that would help and they did seem to go down a bit, but after being in her stall for dinner (about 3 hours) she was all stocked up again. She is out 24/7 except for meals.
I called my vet this a.m. to ask if I should do anything to support her and she said no. I did not tell her I double dosed b/c that is another story in itself. I read the package insert and swollen legs can be a reaction if the horse is heavily infested.
My question is…has anyone had the leg swelling and how long did it take to come down. In a way, I hate that I did this to her but in another way - it is showing to me that she did indeed have NTW’s. Interesting sidenote - this mare is slightly club in her right front. When she foaled, the filly began to show signs of a right club around 3 - 31/2 months old which was Mid-May/Early June - EXACTLY the timeframe when these two start itching/rubbing.
Can/Do mares pass worms along in utero - just like cats and dogs? I am beginning to wonder if the filly’s club is now actually a result of NTW’s. They have always been on a good rotation but if that heavily infected, one dose of ivermectin, to me, did nothing to knock them out. It may have put a dent in the population, but never REALLY got them. Weird thing is…neither mare has suffered as horribly as others listed in this thread - it was kind of a “Hmmm…I wonder if this is what has been going on, let’s give it a try.” I never expected a reaction like this and now I am concerned for my mare.
Any advice would be great. For some reason, I cannot log in and have asked “KrazyTBMare” to post this for me until I can get my log in straightened out.
Thanks!
JM: See if you can search in this thread for Contracted Filly posts/updates. This was one of many cases of contracted/club footed foals that my trimmer saw very positive results in after DD’ing with Equimax. If you’d like to e-mail her directly about this, PM me and I’ll gladly share.
Although I have yet to see scientific data pointing to Mare to Foal transfer of NTW’s, it would make sense to me since the critters love soft tissue and migrate easily into the joints. Again, though, it is supposition on my part.
Re - the leg swelling. While the 19 case studies I was sent didn’t show leg swelling, I do recall posts within this thread that reported it.
Maybe I missed it… but I didn’t notice if any of the case studies included lactating mares… I have a mare with foal at her side that I’m suspicious of having NTW… Wondering if I should do the DD now or wait until her foal is weaned…???
[QUOTE=Sakura;4188007]
Maybe I missed it… but I didn’t notice if any of the case studies included lactating mares… I have a mare with foal at her side that I’m suspicious of having NTW… Wondering if I should do the DD now or wait until her foal is weaned…???[/QUOTE]
I did my nursing and pregnant mare last year and she had a pretty big foal this year LOL. Read the flier with the wormer. They did some testing with preg. mares.
Shazam… finally a vet that sorta gets it. Hmmmm, may need to point Dr. Gray to this thread 
Thanks
[QUOTE=ChocoMare;4190137]
Shazam… finally a vet that sorta gets it. Hmmmm, may need to point Dr. Gray to this thread ;)[/QUOTE]
I saw this on the Smartpak website about a week ago and was really surprised to hear a Vet say they had to refer to a textbook about onchocerca.
I think it’s rare that a Vet is not quite familiar with this parasite from school and practice.
I am not surprised at all when a vet has never heard of it and has no idea what might be going on. They cannot know everything…
Chocomare - I think A LOT of people have read this thread… a lot of vets and researchers have read this thread… why do you think all of a sudden there is such an renewed interest in parasite studies and the change in how the dewormer info reads… oh yes, the arm of COTH is very long, don’t ever underestimate it :winkgrin::lol:
Hmmm, is the above a wink-wink, nudge-nudge post? Do you know something we don’t know? Hmmmmmm? :winkgrin:
New addition:
CASE TWENTY
AGE OF HORSE: 4
SEX OF HORSE: S
BREED OF HORSE: KWPN
Pre-administration symptoms– Purchased horse March 08. Upon arrival presented with quarter-sized scaly patch on wither. Suspected sarcoma. Also a lump under the saddle area even though never ridden at age 3. Prevalent crusty and itchy mane, head, withers.
Heard of the DD Equimax Protocol via COTH thread in winter of 08-09 and when the next Ivermectin rotation came up on my worming schedule, chose to try. Gave 1 full tube followed by another in 2wks. In between, itchy bumps would return but then recede. Have done this cycle two or three times. (Still rotated with Strongid according to vet’s schedule). Each time it’s time for Ivermectin, he gets the DD protocol
Result – the alleged “sarcoma” has fully resolved-just slight hair discoloration, hardly itchy at all, and very few if any crusty bumps to be found.
Future Changes: If at any time symptoms reappear, Ivermectin double dose will be administered
Chocomare, thank you for taking the time to collate and post all of this. A friend at the barn is experiencing these problems, and I am going to have her read through this. Thanks!
You are very very welcome. Tis a humbling honor to play a small part :sadsmile:
Ok guys… I was going through trying to just catch up on this thread. I was on like page 16 or something and saw a picture of a black and white horses body where the hair was coming out and it was splotchy and realize, OMG Ive seen that before!!
My boarders horse had this NASTY skin thing going on 2 yrs ago (July 07) and we couldnt figure out what it was. Finally we had the vet out and she did a biopsy and they said it was just a bug allergy.
With cleaning and lots of care, they FINALLY went away, but it took a few months.
How about a few months until the fall when the NTWs start to die?!
Here is the link to my album with pics of his sores from 2007.
http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r186/krazytbmare1/Bens%20Sores/
Is that a typical NTW deal or what?
Last fall, about the time this thread started, I spoke to Chocomare and went ahead and DD my boarders gelding and my mare just in case. He hasnt had any more signs of those sores since but last night I was grooming my mare and she a few tiny little bumps on her chest and neck which I cant really tell if they are bites or NTWs because the biting flies and mosquitos are horrible right now. BUT I did for the first time in a long time, see like 7 gnats on her so I just got done ordering 6 tubes of Equimax for the three horses here.
So what do you guys think of those pics? It was pretty gnarly charlie there for a while.
Oh that poor boy 
…and being pink skinned on top of it, brought on sunburn I’m sure. Oy vey.
So glad to know, though, that that was two years ago!
I have a question. How do you pronounce Onchocerca?
Choco, so is that a typical NTW thing?
While fly spraying tonight, I looked, and hes getting red dots in the same spot again and a little crustie bump on his neck hear his shoulder that had a hole in it. And some flakey skin under his chest between his front legs. The other two horses look fine but the Equimax cannot come soon enough.
Yup. :yes:
I’ve done the dosing on my 3 connemaras, for 2 it worked great. The one with sweet itch, not so much. I thought the sweet itch may be caused by no see ums attracting to the little breathing holes from the neck thread worms. But I have dbl dosed the gelding twice (1 month, at two weeks repeated the dbl dose). Any other thoughts or do I need to start a sweet itch thread? He has it BAD this year.
