Parasitology 101 – Wake-Up Call to the Dangers of Parasites
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212 – November/December, 2017
by Delores Kuhlwein
A WAKE-UP CALL TO THE DANGERS OF PARASITES AND WIDESPREAD DEWORMING PRACTICES
The leggy, five-month-old colt loped everywhere. He was the “one” his breeders had planned for and waited for all their lives. But when he ended up on the surgery table with a suspected impaction, a belly tap that produced red fluid and overwhelming pain that would not cease, his owners learned in the hardest way that science and nature sometimes have their own plans despite our best attempts to protect our beloved horses.
In the middle of the night, the owners were summoned from the veterinary hospital waiting room halfway through the colic surgery, and their short walk to view their colt lying on the table seemed like an eternity. The diagnosis: It was clear the impaction had been caused by parasites. Any future for this colt was doomed.
How could it be? The owners pleaded tearfully. The deworming program had been followed religiously, and they had gone out of their way with this prize colt including plasma treatments at a young age to assure health and strength, plenty of turnout, proper nutrition, and all the health routines they’d come to depend upon in their program. As their hearts broke, their education about the latest in dewormer resistance and fecal testing began.
If the thought of parasites makes you squirm, it should. If you think you have your deworming program under control, like this unfortunate colt’s owners did, think again. Parasite management has transformed in recent years, and our tried-and-true habits of scheduled worming have gone by the wayside.
Terms like “parasite resistance” and “fecal testing” may not be household terms yet, but get ready because if you’re not including them in your repertoire of knowledge, it’s time.
Click here to read the complete article212 – November/December, 2017
