# I gave my 250 pound mini horse 1,320 pounds of dewormer on accident!



## HorseCrazyTeen (Jul 29, 2012)

Yesterday I was de-worming my favorite little mini with Equimax de-wormer. The applicator for it is the kind that has the quarter-twist lock. It slides down to wherever you want the dosage to be, and the twists back to lock in place so you don't overdose. Well, I was giving it to him and it ALL went into him... every bit of it, fast!

The twisty thing that is SUPPOSED to lock twisted back when it was in his mouth and slid the whole way, emptying the syringe. I freaked out and tried to (stupidly) reach my hand in the his mouth to get it out. I only got a little and then just watched and freaked out some more and hoped he would spit some of it out, but he didn't. Fonzie LOVES worm paste. I ran to the barn with him and told my riding instructor that I gave my mini over *1,300 pounds* worth of de-wormer and she told me to call the vet, so I tried to calm down to sound understandable on the phone. 

The vet said the only thing I could do right now is give him a pint of mineral oil, and he told me what I might expect, what the damage might be, etc., etc. He also said that most of the time more damage is caused when the horse gets 8-12 times the normal dose, but symptoms can occur with 5 times the normal dose. Fonzie got 6 times the regular dose.

So I had to tie him so his head was somewhat upwards and squirted a pint of mineral oil into him with a syringe. Poor little guy! He hated the syringe by the time I was done because I kept sticking it in his mouth to put more mineral oil in him. But he was such a good sport. Such a pal despite me torturing him.

After that I stayed around to watch him and see if he got tremors or became uncertain on his feet, or showed hyper-excitability, depression... blindness, or anything else, until 11:00 pm. He didn't show any of the symptoms the vet talked about. After I left, my BO checked on him through the night.

I called her this morning and asked how he was doing. She said he was acting normal and eating, drinking, etc. THANK GOODNESS. And this afternoon I got a chance to go see him and he acted a little depressed when I first got there to walk him around, outside of his stall, but after a little while he perked up to his normal self. I think he was just acting that way because he had been in a stall for hours. His poop wasn't diarrhea-ish at all either-- no sign of any of that mineral oil coming out of him.

It won't be completely out of his system for 7-10 days, so he's not really out of the woods yet, but the vet said that if he didn't show any symptoms in the first 24 hours, then he would most likely be fine. I sure hope so. I'd die if my sweet little mini suffered from a stupid accident.

Just thought I'd say all this to get it out of my system! Such a scary thing.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Read the instructions and indications on the insert that came with the wormer. It explains the overdosage factor and other important info.


----------



## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

When I was a baby I found an entire bottle of horse wormer pills and swallowed every one. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm alive and I think your pony will be fine too. xD


----------



## Trinity3205 (Dec 21, 2010)

So long as it wasn;t Quest or Quest Plus, he should be fine. Maybe lethargic a day or two. 

Most de wormers have a large margin of safety except for Quest. Also, most horse weigh more than we think they do even by calculations and weight tapes unless you get them on an actual scale.


----------



## NeuroticMare (Jan 8, 2012)

I'm glad he's okay! How scary. My gelding loves wormer too and will suck it out of the tube, luckily he about 1200lb so a whole tube is okay. You did the absolute right thing by getting on the phone with the vet asap. 

I got a bunch of wormer in my mouth at one barn I used to work at (it was Combo-Care, had the quest gel in it), I was being stupid and pulling the cap of the wormer off with my teeth and then sticking the tube back into the cap, still in my teeth. One of them I got a bunch of the gel onto my tongue, and of course it dissolves instantly. It was gross and I felt a little green around the gills for a few days, but I lived to tell the tale.

PS, from now on, squirt out any excess before you worm him, or if you are splitting a tube with another mini or pony, do the other pony first and do him last when there isn't so much in it, since you know he won't spit any out.


----------



## Trinity3205 (Dec 21, 2010)

Well you are at least dewormed well! LOL


----------



## Sherian (Aug 28, 2012)

Take a deep breath and consider it a learning experience - this actually happens fairly often, it was a common phone call to the vet clinic. The only problems I have ever heard of were with Quest (it is metabolised a little differently). Dewormers generally effect the neurologic transmitters of invertebrates which are different chemically than of mammals - hence the high safety margins. If an animal is unusually sensitive (ie dogs and ivermectin) it usually hits pretty fast. 
You will laugh about this next month, he's a greedy ******, most people are fighting to stop them from spitting it out.


----------



## acorn (Nov 27, 2012)

I once did the same thing to a twenty lb. kid (goat kid) and just knew she would die. She didn't even get diarrea! Vet laughed and said that she should be wormed for life.


----------



## HorseCrazyTeen (Jul 29, 2012)

Thanks y'all 

So far he's fine, and the last time I checked on him he didn't even have diarrhea. Hopefully it stays that way. I'm really relieved! I think he'll be just fine now. But I am never de-worming him first again! I'll just do the two bigger minis first.

I did know about the Quest. We don't even give our minis Quest at all. My mom researches literally everything and learned about that. lol

We read what was on the wormer box, too. And we called the phone number on there, but OF COURSE that day was the one day they were closed (Good Friday). It's okay though since the vet told us everything.

I still don't like the Equimax applicator. The little lock thing is a piece of crap. I like the ones that you have to twist all the way up and down. It's practically impossible to overdose that much with that. The reason we chose Equimax is because it has twice the praziquantel than Zimectrin Gold. The vet said it's almost impossible to overdose on praz, and we wanted to make sure we got rid of the tapes. The ivermectin was the scary part.

But anyway, whew.


----------



## NeuroticMare (Jan 8, 2012)

Zimectrin Gold has also been associated with causing some burns/sores in the mouth, plus Equimaxx is cheaper. I always use it. I didn't think any wormers had the full twist applicators, I thought that was just bute... but I don't think about it I guess!


----------



## existentialpony (Dec 4, 2012)

NeuroticMare said:


> I got a bunch of wormer in my mouth at one barn I used to work at (it was Combo-Care, had the quest gel in it), I was being stupid and pulling the cap of the wormer off with my teeth and then sticking the tube back into the cap, still in my teeth. One of them I got a bunch of the gel onto my tongue, and of course it dissolves instantly. It was gross and I felt a little green around the gills for a few days, but I lived to tell the tale.


:shock: Gah! And to think I head for the hose if I so much as smudge it on my arm...

Glad your mini is ok, HorseCrazy!


----------

