Medical update!
ULCERS
I have been puzzled by Jazz's behaviour since he swapped from ranitidine to omeprazole. I began to wonder if the omeprazole was a fake, being an expensive generic drug from India, because he seems to be sharper. Then I noticed that Jazz can taste it and makes faces if he crunches a tablet. I crushed yesterday's to powder and he made faces at his whole feed. I figured that if it was fake it would be made of chalk and he'd be unlikely to make faces about that, he never did about sizable quantities of chalk powder.
So I googled "rantidine" with "sedative" and lo and behold, hidden some way down the list - ranitidine is a significant sedative. Enough to be seriously dangerous to a human who is already taking diazepam drugs.
What does this mean - well first of all, of course, it means that a reaction to rantidine does not necessarily mean any horse has ulcers, since it's sedated. In the absence of strong indicators like Cassie's Vigo starting to object to a girth, and Jean's Tucker with pain when you press his side, you really need a scoping if you want a foolproof diagnosis. The only difference I have with Jazz at home now is that he is not chewing bits of wood off his stable, and instead of doing a "piano sweep" with his teeth to tell me he wants a door opened "now!" , he just flicks his bottom teeth upwards on it once near the lock. That's not much, but for him I still believe that it does indicate that he was in pain. His good behaviour at lessons could either be the new way Sonia has me riding him, or the absence of pain, but might easily be both. The omeprazole is pretty much side-effect free in a horse, so of course I will continue treating him whether he has them or not, because the evidence is now that a huge proportion of horses do.
FEET
Jazz is back in the barn again today, having been in all night too. I am struggling with digital pulses since we got a bit of sun and he isn't coping with all day at grass. On the hack yesterday evening he was very footy on stones he has always been happy to walk over before. I'm not taking any risks, after the nightmare with Scooby's laminitis, so he must stay in until the grass has gone to sleep for the winter.
It was a glorious day for a hack this morning. So I went for a walk :-)
C
posted by cptrayes @ 4:25 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Interesting. I didn't know that about the ratinidine. I didn't use it long enough to know as the Ulcergard is freely available here in tack stores.
I did talk to my vet about the omeprazole and he also said it was a safe drug. Even if a horse didn't have ulcers, it was just fine to use. Wise move on your part to keep it up. I have a feeling it is likely it's doing its job with Jazz.
Remember too, if he does have ulcers, it does take some time for them to heal. The omeprazole cuts the aggravating acid that irritates them but the time is still a factor.
Does Jazz still eat the pills, regardless of the taste? My Boys have been known to go off feed when they don't like a supplement.
Since the drug is (Prilosec in the US) what is for humans, you could taste it if you wanted. I think the coating on the pills is to hide the bitterness. Trouble is, they don't dissolve well in applesauce for syringe feeding because of the coating.
Jazz will be on the full cure Jean, 4 a day for 28 days, 1 a day for 28 days. Then I'll use ranitidine on particularly stressful occasions to stop them coming back.
Jazz eats the pills fine, thankfully. It's such a problem if they won't take medecines, it's great to have a greedy horse!
His pulses are much reduced this evening, so I did the right thing keeping him off the grass. He went out from 5pm to 10pm with a muzzle on and is now tucked up for the night with the others.
C.
Interesting updates on the Ratinidine, thanks.
You did the right thing re pulses, after the wet summer and now some long sunny days the grass is lush like spring. If I ever feel one on my horse now I reduce or remove her grass. I like her to get half her daily fibre from hay or similar because in this management she stays pulse free.
Its a pain, but its better than dealing with footy horses, grumpy horses, sluggish horses or heaven forbid laminitic horses. My difficulty is what do i do when she has a foal at foot? I'll have to play it by ear when that happens.
Cheers Tracey B
I gather lactating mares are metabolically working quite hard Tracey, and rarely get laminitic because of that. I hope it's true!
I have had Jazz in at night for over a week, but just the grass from half a day has been enough to bring his pulses right up. So he is getting no unrestricted grazing at all now, just four hours with a muzzle on. Poor boy, but he is definitely a laminitis candidate if I don't.
The grass is unbelievable - lush, thick, deep green and deadly!
Only George is completely unaffected.
C
Yes, I was told that too, but I was also told the same about them being in foal and I'm not seeing her being able to cope with grass any better than she did previously....oh well, we'll see by monitoring daily pulses.
Tracey B
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