Help please - risks associated with steroids

vetsbestfriend

vetsbestfriend

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Evening all

My horse has recently had 2 bouts of illness where he has a temperature and also poops are runny. First time, vets perscribed 10 day course of Baytril antibiotics, second time he had a jab of anti-biotics and the vet (different one) took a sample of bowel tissue which he sent off for a biopsy.

Results back today which thankfully show that there is nothing really sinister going on inside but does show some inflammation. Vet wants to put the horse onto a 3 month course of steroids (low starting dose and building up if required). Horse is already on a high fibre, ad-lib hay diet and gets pink powder. He is prone to colic and has had colic surgery in March 08.

I am a little concerned about putting him on steroids and intend to have a chat with the head vet at the practise on Monday. Couln't really talk properly to the vet on the phone today as he rang me whilst driving and reception kept going.

Has any one else's horse been on a course of steroids, and if so did they suffer any side effects. Or does anyone else know of the side effects of steroids. The only one that springs to my mind immediately is laminitis.

Glass of wine if you can help please, might also be some chocolate in the fridge as well (if my son hasn't eaten it all!)
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different situation but my mare could have gone on steriods to try help sweetitch, i eventually declined due her being young and increased lami risk. she's a welshie who i'd class as being at risk from lami anyway so i declined
 
I do know a horse who developed laminitis immediately after being on steroids - but whether it was coincidence or not I do not know.
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Laminitis is the big one, although i believe there are other side effects.

i have to say steroids would be a last resort for me in these circumstances although I am sure they would help the inflammation
 
the sweet itch assosiation stopped one of its drugs trials recently (steriod based) due to the inreased reports of lami- ALTHOUGH you have to bear in mind the majority of sweetitch may incur in breeds of horses that may be prone to lami
 
Thanks everyone so far. My gut feeling is definately a no. Would rather try feeding Aloe Vera juice or similar that naturally helps with inflammation.

Better buy a few more bottles of wine to share around.
 
We have a horse on our books that has been on low dose steroids for years for an inflammatory bowel condition, and has never had any laminitis to my knowledge. (it does however deteriorate if steroids are withdrawn)

The risks of laminitis from steroid treatment, whilst not to be ignored, have been highlighted in recent years especially by the publicity and hysteria surrounding a high value, high profile dressage horse and the associated court case.

One of the retired partners of my practice tells me they used to TREAT laminitis with steroids, as they were the only anti-inflammatory that was available!

I would be interested to know how many people on here have a horse or pony that has developed laminitis as a DIRECT result of steroid administration with no other inciting cause identified.
 
Laurandjack - good to hear that there is a horse with similar condition to mine where steroids have helped.

Am still very worried, particularly as just read the post in Vet section as suggested by AmyMay. Plus horse has been through hell and back with colic the last couple of years (and me and my bank account!), laminitis or any other side effects is one thing we both don't need.

I will have a chat with the head vet on Monday as he knows my horse inside out (literally).

Thanks everyone for your help.
 
One of mine was prescribed steroid treatment for a skin disease - she was meant to have an injection firstly, then a course of pills, diminishing as the days went on.
I phoned the vet specifically to ask about the risk of laminitis - she told me there had never been a reported case from oral steroids, but that there had been from injections.
We decided to use the oral steroids (tablets) only, and my horse was fine.
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I would have thought tablets is what they would go for in a long term case. Pony I talked about in earlier post is on prednisolone tablets, o varies the dose according to clinical signs. (the other good thing is that they are cheap!)

'Steroids' are actually a number of different drugs, I would like to know if it is any particular kind that are causing the problems. I know the dressage horse went down with laminitis after joint injection (with triamcinolone if memory serves). This could well have different effects to oral or i/v or i/m formulations - the in's and out's are not well reported even in the veterinary press.

All cases of steroid associated laminitis should be reported officially as an adverse reaction but I'm sure this doesn't happen as often as it should.
 
Different steroids have a different level of risk. Different doses also affect level of risk. So you could discuss this with your vet.

(steroids affect blood flow and also the laminae at a cellular level)

Long term steroids can also cause muscle wastage, supress the immune syste and cause hair loss
 
Some more good points, thanks, I shall add these things as well to my list of questions for Monday. Poor vet will end up being on the phone for half an hour at this rate! Luckily he doesn't mind though.
 
one of the horses i look after had long term steriods for infalmation of gut. he was on them for about 6months started on high dose then gradually reduced he ahd no side effects and is currently doing well off them. he is an old tb. only known of one for deff that developed very mild lami though steriods for head shakingmade full recovery from the lami.
 
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