Darkwater
Well-Known Member
I know there have been lots of threads of past about the long term use of bute/danilon but i've got a slightly different problem and could do with some opinions.
My pony has been on low dose (1/2 to 1 per day) bute for about 6 months due to a jaw problem which means she struggles to eat forage without pain relief. I thought long and hard before putting her on bute in the first place as I know the possible side effects, but at the time the risk seemed worth it if it meant she could have a fairly normal diet, same routine, yard etc (Other options were to move to full turnout and/or feed a no/little long stem forage diet and at the time we couldn't find a yard and struggled to keep weight on her with hay replacers).
My pony is currently convalescing from right dorsal colitis (hind cut ulcers) caused by the bute. So obviously pony is now off the bute and seems to be improving well, slowly but surely. However, I am now back to my original problem of whether to try and manage my mares problems, which if not possible will lead to pts or my vet has suggested that she may not react to danilon in the same way she has to the bute.
Now this rings all the alarm bells to me and my initial feelings are that considering her reaction to the bute it just is not worth the risk of trying her on danilon. With all that she's been through in the last week I really wouldn't want to put her through another episode of this. However she may not fare much better on pain-relief free management, but as I say my initial thoughts are that this is a better risk to take, at least for now as I suppose as a last resort danilon could be tried but to be honest if it came to that we would consider pts anyway.
We have been told that the drug she is taking at the moment for her colon (can't remember the name and don't have it near me) can be taken long term along side bute/danilon to stop these side effects but it isn't financially possible for me to do this as pony is not covered by insurance.
How I will manage my mares original problems is probably a different post all together, but I am basically thinking along the lines of trying to find all year round 24/7 turnout (much harder than you would think in my area it would seem!) keeping her on a hay replacer diet if required in winter, possibly try some bute free alternatives and see how we get on.
What I am really wondering if has anybody had a horse with right dorsal colitis from bute that has successfully moved to a different pain relief afterwards? And I would love some opinions on what other people would do in my situation. I trust my vet implicitly and I know I could always try danilion and take her off it at the first signs of problems, but something is just telling me that its not the right thing to do - but maybe I am wrong hence needing some outside opinions!
Thanks to all that have read this far and sorry if this post should have been in Vet but I thought more people would see it in here.
My pony has been on low dose (1/2 to 1 per day) bute for about 6 months due to a jaw problem which means she struggles to eat forage without pain relief. I thought long and hard before putting her on bute in the first place as I know the possible side effects, but at the time the risk seemed worth it if it meant she could have a fairly normal diet, same routine, yard etc (Other options were to move to full turnout and/or feed a no/little long stem forage diet and at the time we couldn't find a yard and struggled to keep weight on her with hay replacers).
My pony is currently convalescing from right dorsal colitis (hind cut ulcers) caused by the bute. So obviously pony is now off the bute and seems to be improving well, slowly but surely. However, I am now back to my original problem of whether to try and manage my mares problems, which if not possible will lead to pts or my vet has suggested that she may not react to danilon in the same way she has to the bute.
Now this rings all the alarm bells to me and my initial feelings are that considering her reaction to the bute it just is not worth the risk of trying her on danilon. With all that she's been through in the last week I really wouldn't want to put her through another episode of this. However she may not fare much better on pain-relief free management, but as I say my initial thoughts are that this is a better risk to take, at least for now as I suppose as a last resort danilon could be tried but to be honest if it came to that we would consider pts anyway.
We have been told that the drug she is taking at the moment for her colon (can't remember the name and don't have it near me) can be taken long term along side bute/danilon to stop these side effects but it isn't financially possible for me to do this as pony is not covered by insurance.
How I will manage my mares original problems is probably a different post all together, but I am basically thinking along the lines of trying to find all year round 24/7 turnout (much harder than you would think in my area it would seem!) keeping her on a hay replacer diet if required in winter, possibly try some bute free alternatives and see how we get on.
What I am really wondering if has anybody had a horse with right dorsal colitis from bute that has successfully moved to a different pain relief afterwards? And I would love some opinions on what other people would do in my situation. I trust my vet implicitly and I know I could always try danilion and take her off it at the first signs of problems, but something is just telling me that its not the right thing to do - but maybe I am wrong hence needing some outside opinions!
Thanks to all that have read this far and sorry if this post should have been in Vet but I thought more people would see it in here.
