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About Equine Pain Management

Pain is often a key factor in diagnosing the problem, and while nobody wants to leave their horses for suffering, Lohmann says, "If we give too much medicine it can make it more difficult to figure out what was going on.

If the horse has colic, for example, I need to know how the pain of change to determine if surgery will be needed. "

The most commonly used pain medications for horses is an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) and Banamine® phenylbutazone (flunixin meglumine). You can get best racehorse supplements & equine health products online.

"It's very effective, but it comes with some significant side effects," said MacMillan, including gastric ulcer and toxicity, and should only be used under the advice of your veterinarian.

Horses taking these medications can be given Gastrogard® (omeprazole) to help protect the stomach lining. There may be effects on the kidneys as well, especially if the horse is dehydrated.

Other pain medications including steroids (dexamethasone); Local anesthetic (lidocaine); opiates or narcotics (morphine); alpha-2 agonists (xylazine); and dissociative anesthetics (ketamine).

Some drugs may appear in horse blood or urine for an extended period of time; so if your horse to compete, you need to talk to your veterinarian about the length of time that the drug will still be detected in testing.