Zimectrin Gold localized mouth reaction... Minor but still...

[Loves_to_ride]

Well, after swearing I would not use Zimectrin Gold after hearing people’s stories, I only did so after my vet suggested it.

I thought long and hard and figured my horses have been on regular worming and are kinda “been there, done that” types so figured nothing would both them.

Wrong.

Fortunately nothing that quick use of Dexamethazone didn’t resolved but grrr.

11 yr old Tb and 28 yr old App.

Wormed at 5:30 am. By 8 am, side of mouth that I wormed on had plum size swelling, top layer of skin blistered and had started to slough off. Like a giant cankar sore in the inside of his mouth. This was on the 11 yr old.

Both horses were standing with their mouths submerged in the water buckets that I had just refilled that morning. Clearly drool and froth in the water which they never have had before.

I’m guessing they were trying to sooth their mouths in the cool water.

They are both fine. The Dex stopped the reactions quickly.

Boy, did I feel horrible.

So now it’s only Equimax until Quest Plus is available again.

[JB]

Poor guys Did you tell your vet about your hesitation after she suggested it? What is her stance on it now?

btw- deworming history has nothing to do with the reaction

[trubandloki]

@JB;4849358

btw- deworming history has nothing to do with the reaction

I second this.

My been there done that horse had the same exact reaction.

[Auventera_Two]

This happened to one of my horses when wormed with ZG. She developed an ulceration on the corner of her mouth. Shortly after that was when her behavior went down the tubes and she was diagnosed with stomach ulcers via gastroscope. No clue if the two are related, but it’s possible. There was a thread somewhere saying that if your horse develops ulcers from ZG, that Merial will supply a treatment cycle of Gastrogard for free. They’re trying to avoid lawsuits apparently. Wished I had known that at the time.

[irkenequine]

When I was managing a farm about 2 years ago I had this happen–weren’t as many warnings about ZG back then, wormed 16 horses and all of them looked like they’d been slugged in the lip. Never again–had to make 16 wincing phone calls to owners about what I’d done to their poor ponies. However they all healed 100% fine, and no colicy reaction or anything to accompany it. Just the yucky swelling. Couldn’t pay me to touch ZG or Quest with a 10 foot pole anymore. Sorry about your horses Jingles for speedy healing.

[Dune]

A similar thing just happened to a friend of mine. She wormed 2 horses with ZG and one had a horrible reaction to it. It was much worse than your horse and ended up having to go to the hospital. Many dollars later, she was all right, but count me in on the list of “non-users”.

[ThoroughbredFancy]

It seems like the majority of horses wormed with ZG have a reaction.

I know there are some that are just fine but I will still never use the stuff. I can use Equimax or Quest Plus for what I am after and not have to deal with any reactions.

[BoysNightOut]

[QUOTE=Loves to ride;4849337]

So now it’s only Equimax until Quest Plus is available again.[/QUOTE]

Just bought 4 tubes of QuestPlus from Allivet.com on the advice from another CoTHer. Ordered on a Wed. afternoon…got it in the mail that Saturday afternoon. That was about a couple of weeks ago.

Just in case you want it in the future! They don’t seem to be affected by the big back order.

Sorry about your horses, hope they feel better now! I know after reading the threads on here, I too am scared off of using Zimectrin Gold, and will only use Equimax.

[Loves_to_ride]

Reported ZG issue to Merial…

I’m the OP.

I called Merial to let them know about it. They sounded very interested in getting data and asked a bunch of questions.

The Tech Support person (very nice) was aware of the issues but did not know what was causing it. She said they had no such reactions in the clinical trials.

She did say it is key to get the paste as far back onto the tongue as possible, and not in the cheek pouch.
I told her I was lucky to be able to get it in their mouths at all with my wrist issues and I’ve never had issues with other wormers. She said she completely understood.

They are also going to send a report to my vet.

So, thankfully my guys are now okay and I will go look up the Quest Plus at allivet.com that BoysNightOut recommended for my fall worming…

Thanks everyone!

[mjmvet]

I never saw a swelling after using ZG, but my mare sure acted like she was experiencing burning/pain. I’ve never seen anything like it with her, and I’ve used a lot of different dewormers. Never again!

[Whitfield_Farm_Hanov]

I can’t believe that crap is still on the market!

[lauriep]

I just dewormed 18 with ZG and had no problems whatsoever. I had mentioned the information to our vet, and she told me that the problem usually only occurs when the paste hasn’t been placed far enough back in the mouth. I was very careful to place it well and no problems.

[Gry2Yng]

@Loves to ride;4850062

I called Merial to let them know about it. They sounded very interested in getting data and asked a bunch of questions.

The Tech Support person (very nice) was aware of the issues but did not know what was causing it. She said they had no such reactions in the clinical trials.

She did say it is key to get the paste as far back onto the tongue as possible, and not in the cheek pouch.

I’ll call BS on that. They know all about it. Fact is, you can get it as far back in the mouth as you want, but if you get some on the lip on the way out with the tube, you can end up with a reaction. I had a Tech Support person that was not as nice when it happened to one of my horses. wouldn’t even talk to me. Wanted a VET only. Don’t usually have a vet around when I paste worm.

[LLDM]

@Loves to ride;4850062

I’m the OP.

I called Merial to let them know about it. They sounded very interested in getting data and asked a bunch of questions.

The Tech Support person (very nice) was aware of the issues but did not know what was causing it. She said they had no such reactions in the clinical trials.

She did say it is key to get the paste as far back onto the tongue as possible, and not in the cheek pouch.
I told her I was lucky to be able to get it in their mouths at all with my wrist issues and I’ve never had issues with other wormers. She said she completely understood.

They are also going to send a report to my vet.

So, thankfully my guys are now okay and I will go look up the Quest Plus at allivet.com that BoysNightOut recommended for my fall worming…

Thanks everyone!

I had this happen to one of mine (out of 16 horses) about 3 or 4 years ago. ZG had been out a while and had decent reviews. I also called Merial and filed a report. They asked me a ton of questions. Someone called me back and asked more questions about a week later and gave me an incident number. They promised to get back with me later, but never did. When I called them 6 months later, they had absolutely nothing to say to me. No additional info, no follow up, no nothing. I will never use ZG again, but do use some of their other products with no problems.

I think it’s very odd. I wish they were more forthcoming about the issues with ZG. I use Quest Plus now and have no problems with it.

I hope you can get better answers than I did. Let us know, will you?

SCFarm

[pintopiaffe]

I just don’t get why this stuff is still on the market.

[Callaway]

A mare that is boarded here at my farm had a similar reaction to Zimectrin gold…I think it may be the dye in it. She tolerates Equimax just fine.

[AppJumpr08]

I think I’m more blown away by the fact that this manufacturer seems to have NO interest in even modifying the formulation.

Never used it - never will. I’m very happy with Equimax :yes:

[stockhorselady]

My vet has seen the exact same thing with a few pateints, she she tells me to only use equimax. ZG she saw ulcers in the mouth, and Quest needs to be very accuratly dosed based on weight, because it literly dissolves so horses dont really have a chance to spit any out.

[JB]

The dosing accuracy of Quest isn’t related to how fast it dissolves, or not - there are other dewormers that dissolve quickly.

the issue is that moxidectin is stored in fat, acting as a time-release product. Give too much, there is too much in the system for too long. Give it to a horse who has too little body fat, there is too much actively in the system right away (the biggest reason for not giving it to foals - they have no body fat). You shouldn’t even give it, probably, to extremely fit racehorses/eventers/endurance horses whose body fat is low, for that reason.

[Gry2Yng]

Thanks for the info JB.