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The horse parasite I'm talking about is the lungworm. Your horse can ingest them by eating grass in a pasture that has been infected with it's larvae (what we call a worm like this in it's very young and immature stage of life).
This parasite lives in the lungs of your horse by attaching itself to the lung walls. That's where it lays its eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the little beasts try to swim around in your horse's lungs as best they can.
If your horse is lucky enough to cough them up, you'll find several yellow globs of mucous in his stall. Some of them may appear to be frothy, like the foam on an ocean wave.
If your horse swallows these larvae, they go through his digestive tract. Some will be excreted through his feces. Then these little buggers grow up, attach themselves to local blades of grass wherever they land, where they'll probably get eaten by another animal. And then, the whole yucky, wormy cycle starts up all over again.
But some lucky worms get absorbed into your horse's circulatory system, where they'll make their way back to his lungs and set up shop there. This is where they cause the horse health problem we call parasitic bronchitis.
The typical symptoms you'll see are yellow nasal discharge and an excessive amount of coughing. Don't be surprised if this breathing difficulty causes your horse to lose his appetite as well.
Once it gets to this phase, you need to treat it. If you don't your horse could come down with COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). COPD is a very dangerous health problem for your horse, so you want to catch this condition before it gets that far.
But here's where it gets weird. Lungworms make their way through donkeys - lungs, intestines, and all - without causing any symptoms. Nobody is really sure why donkey's don't get these problems. Just lucky, I guess.
Horses, on the other hand, aren't so lucky. That's why they depend on you to recognize these symptoms and take action.
But the fact that donkeys don't get these symptoms actually helps you, the horse owner, detect this problem.. If your horse comes down with these symptoms and his donkey friend doesn't, that's a pretty good indicator that lungworm is a real possibility.
Fortunately, the number of lungworm-induced parasitic bronchitis cases in the U.S. has dropped dramatically in recent years.The reason? Widespread use of ivermectin wormers, a de-worming agent you can get from your equine vet.
Remember the lungworm warning signs:
* yellow nasal discharge
* coughing up frothy yellow globs of mucous
* sharing a pasture with donkeys, who seem to be in perfect health
Now that you know the symptoms of lungworm, you'll recognize the problem early, while it's much easier to treat.
Yours For Better Horse Care,
Sierra Lynch
