March 12, 2013 - About that hindgut biopsy...

Yep, that nicely filled out, healthy looking body houses a nasty worm load.

 If you're wondering about the biopsy, the results suggested encysted strongyles - apparently Rory is very sensitive to some phase of the burrowing in or out (unrelated to egg laying, so they don't necessarily show on a fecal at that time which is what fooled us into ruling out worms) and doesn't have a heavy enough infestation to have a constant problem - thus the intermittent nature. Anyway he got dewormed with Quest today after an oxybendazole dewormer knocked off the bulk of his active wormload two weeks ago. We recount in about six weeks and see how he's doing. If he's okay I'll deworm for tapeworms then. But it looks like I'll have to make Quest part of his regular dewormer rotation to keep on top of the encysted worms. I used Quest when it first came out and didn't like it from a user perspective. I found the horses spat more of it out, so I haven't used it since - until now. Rory will be getting it at least once a year from now on.

February 16, 2012 - Hindgut biopsy

Rory needs some good luck. He had the biopsy of his hind gut done today to be sent off for examination. I really hope it shows something that we can resolve fairly easily to fix his poop juice issues.  I had the vet pull some blood too.

The process was quite simple.  The vet had brought a sterilized metal bottle cap (yes, a beer bottle cap - it had a beaver and a maple leaf on it) which she used to pinch off a sample of his gut wall.  Rory was really good about the biopsy though he did keep trying to twist around to see what she was doing. I was holding his head and his tail at the same time and remembering when I could put one arm round his chest and the other round his bum at the same time. I was stretching to hold his tail today.