Double Dose

Awww, the powerful "double D". I'm big into reading CoTH (www.chronicleforums.com) and stumbled upon a thread about double dosing ivermectin (or Equimax) for neck thread worms (NTW). Common signs of NTWs are bumps on neck, chest, belly line or extreme itchiness.

Neither boy has any real signs of NTWs but from reading the thread, I decided that I'd DD Gringo first to see if it helps at all with some of the noseeum reactions he's been having. So, Gringo got dosed for a 2000 lb horse yesterday (he taped at 1000 lbs). I also gave him 20cc of Maalox afterwards, to ward off any possible stomach upset due to the dewormer. Plan is to follow up in two weeks with another double dose of ivermectin.

I plan on DD Gus after his next barn worming. The BO deworms every eight weeks or so and doesn't like us doing any deworming at all... but I would really like to either powerpak Gus or DD with ivermectin. The vet agrees that Gus would likely benefit from the powerpak because of all his other issues (maintaining weight, older, etc...).

Otherwise, Gringo's lame again. What's new? BO called me yesterday to let me know that he was off in his left fore, again. Not sure what he did, but he's pretty off. I also noticed a large chunk of hair loss on the right hind leg, just above the hock. Who knows what the guy did this time. It's already scabbed over (all black in color) and doesn't seem especially tender to the touch. Does not seem off on it either. So, for at least a 12 days he's on Devils Claw Plus (by Uckele) for pain. If not better, I'll do bute for a week.

Gus seems better today though. The swelling in the left cannon bone has gone down again. It was wrapped overnight and will be left unwrapped until either Friday evening or Saturday afternoon. He's walking much better on it now also. Still has the sore on his stifle, less painful then prior days but still very much bothers him. We'll see how the weekend goes.