Tapeworm warning

[scattymare]

I got Eddies final blood test results back last week and to my horror it showed she had a moderate-high burden of tapeworm! She was wormed in May with Equest Pramox and at the end of August with Equitape both of which should kill them off.
The vet did say that parasitic residue can show in the blood test for up to 3 months after worming so the August Equitape may have killed them off but still picked up in the blood test.
But that still means that between May & August she's picked up a large burden.
No idea if this caused the colic but as it is a high cause of it we are treating again now and again in 1 month with a further blood test in 4 months time (under vets advice of course) and doing Flossy and Harvey the same.
The vets did say that they are seeing more and more cases of tapeworm. The nasty blighters are becoming more resistant to modern wormers and the weather we've been having has been perfect breeding ground for them.
Unfortunately worm counts don't show tapeworm and the only method of testing is via bloods.
Now is the time to worm if you haven't already and remember that most tapewormers require a double dosage (Equitape doesn't but I think this is the only one)

[fimacg]

thanks Eddie mine all got there tapeworm dosage recently... but definately worth the reminder

[horsecare]

Horses become infected with tapeworms when grazing or eating hay or bedding that is infected with the orbatid mite (forage mite) which is the intermediate host of the tapeworm. Eggs develop in the orbatid mite into immature tapeworms (cysticercoids) which will develops into an adult tapeworm in the horses intestine, eggs are spread via the tapeworm segments.
Diagnosing tapeworm in live horses is difficult as not finding tapeworm eggs in faeces does not mean that the horse is free of tapeworms, therefore egg counts are not reliable in the detection of tapeworm. The ELISA blood test for tapeworm antibodies is more reliable but even that isn't 100%
Exposure to tapeworms is greater during long periods of grazing eg. summer turnout, which is why we traditionally treat fro tapeworm in the autumn and then again six months later. Control tapeworm by worming with Equitape which treats Tapeworm only and should be used in addtion to your normal wormer or use a combination wormer such as Strongid P, Pyratape P, Equimax, Eqvalan Duo, Equest Pramox etc.