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Medicating your Horse








Before medicating your horse, there are a few things to consider. remember that drugs can have a long term affect on the horse and can affect the digestive tract, especially performance enhancing drugs.  The most common types of medication and their uses are below.
Non-steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)
  • Don’t speed the healing process, but mask pain (like aspirin or tylenol in humans)
  • Reduce inflammation by blocking postaglandins, which are released when a cell is damaged causing increased blood flow (heat), swelling, loss of function, hypersensitivity to pain or heat, or a fever.
  • Also known as Anti-fever drug
  • Does not block pain, but reduces inflammation and helps take the pain away
  • Excessive use will cause ulcers
  • They are acidic and do not show up in saliva tests
  • Concentrate in the stomach, small intestine and kidney

Phenylbutazone “Bute”
  • Most common NSAID 
  • In form of pills, liquid and pasted
  • Takes 30 minutes to start working and 3-12 hours to get full effect
  • If you horse hurts, give him some at night, then again in the morning (be sure you are following the vets advice)

Naproxen (Equiproxen)
  • Relieves pain and reduces inflammation
  • Reduces lameness in horses that tie-up
  • Treats soft tissue disease
  • Give twice a day orally

Flunixin Meglumine (Banamine)
  • Used to treat colic by reducing pain and inflammation in the digestive tract in 15-30 minutes (if it doesn’t take affect in that amount of time, you need to have a vet come out, because it is much more serious)
  • Very safe to give, but do not combine with other drugs unless you talk to a vet, can be given intraveniously, intramuscularly or orally. 

Melafenamione Acid (Arquel)
  • Used for arthritis, navicular and founder
  • Slow acting, takes about 36-96 hours to kick in

Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (SAIDs)
  • Reduces inflammation
  • Naturally occurring in the body
  • Cortisone, aldosterone, corticosterone
  • Can be administered to a joint or specific area, or entire system
  • Delays healing, but suppresses pain
  • Can cause joints to deteriorate
  • Does not remove or cure the pain
  • The injection site will cause at least a minor infection, no matter how careful the vet is.

Anabolic Steroids (testosterone)
  • Can help  a sick horse put on weight
  • Many halter horses get this to grow faster and stronger
  • Can make a stallion sterile because his body will stop making it
  • Can make a mare act like a stallion, also causing infertility
  • If you give 5cc’s of Equipoise, it can help geldings put on weight and make their coat look great, at this level, it can help them gain weight while not causing them to act like a stallion. Any higher of a dose will cause Stallion-like behavior.

Stimulants
  • Highly illegal, but still used, but race tracks now test for these.

Tranquilizers
  • Acepromazine “Ace” is used a lot in the horse business to relax a horse who is scared, anxious or nervous.
  • Don’t administer to an excited horse, as it can cause negative effects
  • Used by Farriers, trainers and horse traders.
  • Many horse traders will use this to sell an energetic horse as a calm horse, or to cover up a bad habit. 
  • How to tell if a horse has been Aced, his head will hang low, and he will appear lethargic. If the horse is a male, it will make the penis hang out about 3-4 inches. It takes 12 to 24 hours for the Ace to wear off. The best way to avoid getting caught in this situation is tell the person you want to come see the horse, but don’t give them a time or day, and show up unannounced, or last minute so they won’t have time to Ace the horse and for it to take effect. 

Antibiotics
  • Penicillin is the most common, Procaine penicillin is a long acting penicillin that is banned in most places.
  • Broad-spectrum penicillin will work on both on gram negative and gram positive bacteria.
  • Do not administer in the vein as it can kill a horse, when administering, just like intramuscular vaccines, pull the plunger back a bit to make sure there is not blood in the syringe (indicating that you are in a vein). 

Lasix
  • Given to stop bleeders (some horses bleed from the nose after a hard run)

DMSO
  • Rub on the skin (it will quickly penetrate)
  • When mixed with another chemical such as corticosteroids, iodine, or furacin, it will penetrate deep into the muscle
  • Typically injected for arthritis and West Nile disease (check with a vet before injecting).

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