Wednesday, August 15, 2007

This is Cinder, she's a pretty good looking old girl. I noticed her eyes were goopy & her Mom said she had always had runny eyes. Two days of allergy capsules, & they are dry. I think besides the invention of fly masks, finding out about equines having allergies & being able to dry them up so easily, is 2 of the greatest advances made in the past 25 years. Of course there are 100's of other things that have made horses more comfortable, but these 2 are so very simple & can be done on a regular basis.

I've been doctoring poor little Sha'ba all summer for habronema larvae on his sheath. It's nothing like the infestation he had when we got him, but they are there. So every morning I have to get "up close & personal" to see if there are any new outbreaks & if the old areas are healing. Unfortunately on the sheath you can't keep it covered, like a fly mask on the eyes. I try to get the larvae out if I can, keep the area covered with ivermectin to kill the larvae already there. Then I cover the rest of his sheath with thunja zinc oxide, which flies hate, to hopefully stop the reinfestation.

Cisco is another one that has a lousy immune system & has had past battles with habronema that would just break your heart. He's been real good this summer & I haven't been checking him every day. Checked him this morning, & found a pocket of at least 2 larvae. So now he will be on my daily "grope" list for awhile. He also got wormed with ivermectin, since it is a systemic wormer, supposably it will also kill the larvae, if me slathering them from the outside doesn't.

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