Paracetamol as a pain killer for horses

[scrapster]

Apparently you can use paracetamol for laminitus too. My boy has slight copd, he has an inhaler and I had to get a child face mask for it from the pharmacy, my vet said not to say it was for a horse as they wouldn't sell it and then said they do the same with paracetamol, where whole yards go into tesco to get the allowed quota! Good luck x

 

[MileAMinute]

My (highly reputable) vet advised me to give 500mg paracetamol to my beagle when he suffered with hip dysplasia. Interesting.

 

[Nari]

This is very interesting & I may have a chat with my vet. I have a big horse recovering from laminitis (Cushings) who's got very stiff through his arthritic hocks after 7 months box rest & we can't use any form of nsaid because they upset his gut even on omeprazole. He's on a low level of codeine phosphate & boswellia, when he'll eat it, but it would be nice to have some back up.

 

[oldie48]

don't know if this is any help, but I've had to get a lot of different rather unpleasant drugs down him. He's very suspicious of anything that tastes different so I've been mixing them with concentrated orange cordial and using a syringe. He's tolerated them pretty well and is accepting that he has to have them. He's gone off his feed completely but is happy to eat grass and hay.

This is very interesting & I may have a chat with my vet. I have a big horse recovering from laminitis (Cushings) who's got very stiff through his arthritic hocks after 7 months box rest & we can't use any form of nsaid because they upset his gut even on omeprazole. He's on a low level of codeine phosphate & boswellia, when he'll eat it, but it would be nice to have some back up.

 

[Moomin1]

My (highly reputable) vet advised me to give 500mg paracetamol to my beagle when he suffered with hip dysplasia. Interesting.

Paracetamol in larger doses over long periods is toxic to dogs, but some vets do advise small doses of it which isn't thought to have any adverse effect.

 

[Nari]

don't know if this is any help, but I've had to get a lot of different rather unpleasant drugs down him. He's very suspicious of anything that tastes different so I've been mixing them with concentrated orange cordial and using a syringe. He's tolerated them pretty well and is accepting that he has to have them. He's gone off his feed completely but is happy to eat grass and hay.

It doesn't seem to mix to a form that syringes easily, & he's normally good to syringe - has to be since he has at least two lots of meds by syringe each day! Thanks for the thought though.

 

[FinkleyAlex]

No he didn't respond to the first set of antibiotics (unfortunately as they were hideously expensive!), he responded to the second set but that took a good seven days to truly kick in. He had it in his knee, he has old scar tissue from a previous injury/operation there so we think that was a factor. At first he really couldn't walk at all, then he'd hobble a bit, then once the second set of antibiotics kicked in he could walk but swung his leg out because of the swelling. It's been about 2 months since that happened and his knee is now a normal size (it took about 4 weeks to go down) and he's very comfortable again. If we hadn't changed his antibiotics I'd have put him to sleep as he was utterly miserable - luckily I wanted to try everything before calling it a day.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Both posts above reported, spammer....

 

[Pearlsasinger]

FGS!

 

[millikins]

My laminitic pony was on paracetamol as well as bute. Problem I had was getting it into her as minimal feed and a pony deeply suspicious of tablets by then. I had to buy the soluble ones which was very expensive.
Paracetamol is suitable for dogs, it causes liver damage same as in humans if dose isn't weight appropriate.

 

[MinKo]

Never heard of that, was there a reason that you have not used bute ? I would think it is a lot easier to get bute in to a horse than 40 tablets.

Paracetamol is stronger than Bute and various old horses on my yard have been given it for various issues

 

[Goldenstar]

Dogs can take paracetamol our vets often use it for pain relief .

 

[Po Knee]

My laminitic pony was on paracetamol as well as bute. Problem I had was getting it into her as minimal feed and a pony deeply suspicious of tablets by then. I had to buy the soluble ones which was very expensive.
Paracetamol is suitable for dogs, it causes liver damage same as in humans if dose isn't weight appropriate.

Yes this. 15 paracetemol tablets twice a day alongside the bute. I got mine from the vet in an enormous glass jar - enough to sink a battleship . I figured that whilst more expensive it was way easier than trawling around the local shops on a regular basis!

 

[blitznbobs]

Paracetamol is a crap painkiller. I wouldn't go through all that bother for something that is so ineffective, there must be something better that the vet can prescribe.

Paracetamol is not a crap pain killer when used along side other analgesics … many studies show it can halve the amount of opiates/ opiods needed in severe pain … thats pretty good in my book

oh and iv paracetamol is as effective as 10 mg morphine in bone fractures

 

[windand rain]

Paracetamol is definitely not a crap painkiller it was part of four hourly painrelief for my OH when he had his knee replaced at the end of june he was walking in 4 hours and driving in 3 weeks pain only controlled by paracetamol and two hours later ibuprofen. No opiates at all

 

[MinKo]

My bestie is a paramedic and he has always said this is fine to do, I suffer with sinus and dental issues, whenever I'm having trouble I use paracetamol and ibuprofen in 2 hour rotations,

 

[MotherOfChickens]

oh and iv paracetamol is as effective as 10 mg morphine in bone fractures

but not as fun..

 

[Peglo]

I’m not surprised paracetamol seemed useless against back pain. As far as I hear, even very strong painkillers don’t help with back pain. So not a very fair study IMO. I’ve used it for other injury’s/ post knee surgery and it takes the edge off for me.

I’ve been told by a friend about using paracetamol for horses. She thought it helped one of her oldies.
Sending best wishes for a speedy and full recovery for your TB

 

[ycbm]

My laminitic pony was on paracetamol as well as bute. Problem I had was getting it into her as minimal feed and a pony deeply suspicious of tablets by then. I had to buy the soluble ones which was very expensive.

I've used a pestle and mortat in the past, a hammer and a strong bag will work too. I think paracetamol will turn to a soggy paste if they are soaked overnight, I'm not sure what that would do to their effectiveness. None of those ideas would be good for any enteric coated tablet, like omeprazole, that needs to get through the stomach before coming into action.
.

 

[abbijay]

My horse had paracetamol in horsepital years back when he had an undiagnosed infected pastern joint and was in acute pain despite high doses of bute. Since then my horse had an episode of Right dorsal colitis (basically this is an allergic reaction to bute for those that haven't experienced it/heard of it). He will NEVER have bute again. I have had a chat with my friendly vet and she's suggested, should he show pain again, we use paracetamol to manage this. I have a stack of about 100 tablets in should I ever need it.