Neck worm?????

[janette carter]

Any of you had any experience of this one? A lot of my pony's rather odd sweetitch symptoms at the end of last year now I find seem to mirror symptoms of a neck worm infestation but I can't find out an awful lot about it.

She had much worse than usual face sores despite wearing a fly mask over a Snuggy Hood.

She had a bite under her sweet itch body mid line belly. Not particularly itchy.

Usual bites pea/marble lumps on the insides of her thighs.

Non itchy large "bite" on withers.

For the first time got bitten on her front tendons. Again not particulary itchy but hard and granular.

Self mutilated for the first time on hind fetlock.

Aside from this she was also found to have a high worm count and I gave her a hefty dose of invermectin Oct/Nov.

About this time her sweet itch was so extreme I tearfully began to think she would eventually have to be pts from this condition if she kept getting worse and worse each year. I mean even the rugs were n't working properly ........

And these worms are transmitted by that blasted midge.......

Could it have been neck worm falsifying the sweet itch symptoms?

[charlotte+jill!]

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/71804.htm

found that dont know if it helps but has a picture that maybe useful

id contact the vet if i were you

[Portia]

Now THAT is really interesting - thank you C&J for the link!

That might explain why B's terribly itchy skin improved after I treated her with an Ivermectin wormer (which I'd done in case she'd picked up lice), never even considered she'd got microfilarie in the dermis, and never got as far as skin scrapings or biopsy for diagnosis.

[janette carter]

Portia. There was one instance about two years ago. For the previous 12 months since I purchased her her worming had been organised by the YO and I have to confess it was was one less things to worry about. However I was suspicous when they gave PEG in June. The next lot of wormers I grabbed and did myself Equrell or something (invermectin). Incidentally her droppings were full of worms and I commenced quietly doing her myself on the Equest programme before I left the yard. One thing I do remember very clearly was how she stopped rubbing her tail raw after that (which I wondered if it was a pin worm infection) and that summer/autumn I reckon I had 95/98% control over the sweet itch just the sores on her face took quite a long time to heal.

This year despite the vaccine and rugging I had lost the plot by November. It was hopeless.

N.B. A lot of reports I have found including one leaflet from Fort Dodge say Equest is NOt effective against neck worm.

[Portia]

This year despite the vaccine and rugging I had lost the plot by November. It was hopeless.

N.B. A lot of reports I have found including one leaflet from Fort Dodge say Equest is NOt effective against neck worm.


B'd been itchy in years past, but I could manage it with flysheet and spray plus benzyl benzoate for bites and itchy areas. THIS past summer was the worst I'd ever had with her, despite all the things that had worked in the past, and it bizarrely continued into late november.

By neck worm do you mean the neck threadworm that's transmitted by gnats? for anyone else interested, read this
www.wormersdirect.com/InfoandAdvice-wormsheets-neckthreadworm.asp

I'm going to confess my ignorance and say that prior to this thread I wasn't aware of a 'neck threadworm', and the fact they could invade the skin, nor that they could be transmitted by gnat bits. I understood the itching was an allergic response to the bite, but with no parasitic association.

I've learned something valuable here. Thank you all.

[connieD]

this is quite interesting as my horses sweetitch has been really bad this year. she is on a worming programme from the vet but you never know!

it said in the link that you cant kill the adult worm - so what happens then? is it not treatable, im confused, if the wormers only do the ones in the cells??

anyone know any more?

[janette carter]

Yeah it's this worm I'm suspecting. I read it the same you can't get rid of the adult worms......you must be able to kill them off somehow surely??? Otherwise it's just controlling them with invermectin......

Gill of Westgate where are you we need you!!