RE: Colic ?parasitic

Marie Kubiak — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 14:05:29 GMT

White rhino, same GIT anatomy as horses though! 3yr old juvenile male. He had flubendazole as a milled pellet.

Parasitism was only suspected as there were lots of weird, consistent structures in the faecal sediment. Flotation today is negative and sediment hasn't got the odd structures so less convinced now. Biochem was fine but a marked leucopaenia seen on blood smear and antibiotics started. No scour, no other clinical issues recently in him or the rest of the group.

No sand in faeces on any of them and we do watch for this, but due to lip anatomy this species is fairly efficient at close grazing without soil intake. Gastroscopy not an option due to equipment available and sedation concerns.

He does seem pretty much back to normal today, feeding and passing normal faeces and being difficult! Still at a loss as to cause of issues.

Marie

RE: Colic ?parasitic

Wren — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 10:20:01 GMT

I can't tell a lot from the pictures I'm afraid. Are these from horses? (or donkey/zebras/other equids?). The types of parasitism in horses that cause colic signs are generally tapeworm (at the ileocaecal junction), or occasionally encysted cyathostomes, although they more usually present as weight loss/PLE/diarrhoea/ill thrift. Neither show up on FWECs. Just seen that they were wormed last week. What with? Some of the more aggressive wormers (Equimax/Equest Pramox) do often cause colic symptoms in this time frame in horses that have a moderate burden. They usually settle down in a few days - steroids can help.

Is there a particular reason to suspect parasitism? Have you got hypoalbuminaemia/scour? What sort of age? Sand based or scrubby grazing (we have seen a lot of sand colics this year due to poor grass, and we are not in a typically affected area)? Gastroscopy for ulcers? No signs suspicious of grass sickness? Sorry for all the questions!