Jul 9, 2026 · 15 min · 9 segments
Welcome to episode #43 of Scrubbed In: The DVM Journey – the podcast where we dive into the wild, rewarding, and sometimes unpredictable world of becoming a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. In this…
Grace GaynorHost
Case number one, a 15-year-old quarter horse presents with chronic weight loss, intermittent diarrhea, and poor body condition.
Which parasite is most likely? The answer is small strongyles, or ceathostomans.
They are the number one target of our deworming programs and ubiquitous in grazing horses.
Unlike large strongyles, which we'll talk about in a second, the major concern isn't migration, also something we're going to talk about in a second, but with these small strongyles, it's something that happens inside the large intestine.
Larvae insist within the wall of the cecum and colon, and thousands may remain dormant for months.
But they can emerge simultaneously, and when they do, they can produce inflammation of the intestine and a clinical condition called acute larval ceathostomonosis.
Clinical signs you can see with acute larval ciathostominosis, or ALC, is chronic diarrhea, weight loss, poor body condition, colic, and hypoproteinemia.
It is only when they emerge simultaneously, resulting in ALC, that they can cause these clinical signs.
So how do we diagnose small strongyles? We can diagnose this condition by putting together the clinical presentation and history.
We can use our ultrasound, and sometimes we'll see a thickened colon or cecum, and by ruling out other causes of clinical signs.
We can also do a fecal flotation, and on blood work, we may see an albumin-globulin ratio reversal.
No dewormer is effective in treating that acute larval ceathostominosis, or ALC.
So when we see that condition, we want to do supportive care and try to treat it like other types of colitis.
For small strongyles in general, without clinical signs, we want to use macrocyclic lactones for adults and fenbendazole against the insisted larva.
Case number one, a 15-year-old quarter horse presents with chronic weight loss, intermittent diarrhea, and poor body condition.
Which parasite is most likely? The answer is small strongyles, or ceathostomans.
They are the number one target of our deworming programs and ubiquitous in grazing horses.
Unlike large strongyles, which we'll talk about in a second, the major concern isn't migration, also something we're going to talk about in a second, but with these small strongyles, it's something that happens inside the large intestine.
Larvae insist within the wall of the cecum and colon, and thousands may remain dormant for months.
But they can emerge simultaneously, and when they do, they can produce inflammation of the intestine and a clinical condition called acute larval ceathostomonosis.
Clinical signs you can see with acute larval ciathostominosis, or ALC, is chronic diarrhea, weight loss, poor body condition, colic, and hypoproteinemia.
It is only when they emerge simultaneously, resulting in ALC, that they can cause these clinical signs.
So how do we diagnose small strongyles? We can diagnose this condition by putting together the clinical presentation and history.
We can use our ultrasound, and sometimes we'll see a thickened colon or cecum, and by ruling out other causes of clinical signs.
We can also do a fecal flotation, and on blood work, we may see an albumin-globulin ratio reversal.
No dewormer is effective in treating that acute larval ceathostominosis, or ALC.
So when we see that condition, we want to do supportive care and try to treat it like other types of colitis.
For small strongyles in general, without clinical signs, we want to use macrocyclic lactones for adults and fenbendazole against the insisted larva.
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