Skittish horse

[Marsha Cassada]

Banamine will also calm a horse down. It might not be the lack if pain that makes him chill out, but the drug itself.

Also, banamine is IV ONLY. If you can't hit a vein reliably, DO NOT give it to your horse. We did a dissection in college where we gave the animal banamine IM 24 hrs pre euthanasia. Holy crap I will never give banamine IM again in my life. Abcess wasn't even the word.

I use paste banamine. It comes in a tube like wormer. Naturally, if pain is relieved, one would feel calmer.

I get it from my vet; it is a prescription.

I agree, some horses are just more reactive. But it's our job to figure out if it is simply personality or some underlying cause. It's a learning process, imo.

 

[Kim P]

I do not have to have him haltered to handle him, I just have to move in slow and talk gentle and firm. I have to tell him to stop. You can not raise your voice or chase him. I am pretty sure his vision is good. He seems to watch everything. He sees me lift the rake and takes off when I am cleaning the pen. Or anything really. I know since I have had him, we have spent lots of time at the vet and he has been through a lot with that abscess then I had him gelded. My vet is not too much on pain meds. I always tell him that he has to give them pain meds. I went there the other day to get some for Patty when she has the baby, he was busy doing surgery on a cat and told his wife they don't normally give pain meds for that. She told him, but this is Kim Pyle wanting it. He had to call me back but I missed it. I am sure I will get her some. I want be able to get any just to try on Wishbone. I will not use a needle to give a shot though. I have had to run tubes in Wishbones sinus cavity and flush it and put antibiotic in there. I did it all by myself. It is finally looking good. So I don't think that he is in pain now. He has actually become more skittish since I had him gelded. The weather has been so bad that I have not spent much quality time with them. Raining! I just think maybe he did not get lots of affection from his owners. I wish I knew someone around here that was into showing minis, and they could tell me if he had been trained. Then again that is why I think maybe he was abused, bc of the way he handles when he has a lead rope on! I will just keep working with him and take our time. Maybe he just lost someone he loved and does trust easily. We will get there. When the weather gets good maybe I can try to post a short video of his behavior and y'all can see.

 

[AngC]

I don't understand "testing" bute/banamine to "see" how a horse reacts. I don't know, maybe that stuff is like aspirin to a horse (or maybe not?)

Regarding blindness: I've got blind.

I learned he was blind AFTER lightning struck our tree, wiped out most of our electric, and somewhere along the line Nicky was struck in the eye with either a cedar tree shard or a piece of melted fence charger. I only learned while he was being treated for that injury that he had cataracts and was already significantly vision-impaired. Now, I know. But if you saw him puttering around, you probably wouldn't know he was blind. In retrospect, some of his behavior makes sense, but they really are pretty good relying on their other senses. Just saying....

Regarding desensitizing: We did a lot of "desensitizing" simply because we didn't know any better. For example, tractor had to go in for stall clean-ups. In it went. Other than ensuring they stayed out of the way, we didn't know any better. The husband used to start up the Harley (which was really loud with some sort of straight pipes on it) a couple feet away from the fence and Nicky's head; Nicky wouldn't even flick an ear. None of them do--for noisy stuff we do. In fact, some noisy things mean 'food" to them, like for instance a weed whacker.

I'm not where I want to be with our mare (the other two, I think I'm doing ok.) but with the mare I'm starting to wonder whether she's being a douche just to get the attention.

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

Banamine is NOT like aspirin. The reason hunt and performance horses need to be free of banamine is that it does have a tranquililizing effect - it's no ace but will certainly take the edge off.

The thought of oral banamine just makes me squirm. It causes ulcers - not can cause ulcers, but repeateded use DOES cause ulcers. It will rip a stomach apart in no time. I have a 250 ml bottle and 1100 cattle here - at 10cc a dose I might use half the bottle in a year because I hate it that much. I refuse to use it for much more than an extreme fever, or a colic on my guys, and even then they only get one shot IV. It was a drug developed and approved orginally to be used IV - if you can't use it that way don't.

Banamine is FAR over used in horses in my opinion and so frequently used in unecessary cases. Sorry - id rather have my guys a bit uncomfortable for a bit than ulcerated and abscessed.

Also, I attended a lecture by one of the leading euthanasia experts in the nation. Livestock aren't people. People don't process things the way livestock do. Treating a horse as a person is just as bad as treating a person as a horse. Needs aren't met in either case. They don't process things like people do, including pain. Yes, it still hurts and it's our responsibility to help, but they don't 'process' it the way we do. Pretty much he said animals wouldn't take Tylenol like we would. Hard to explain without being there. But was hands down one of the best lectures of my life. Chronic pain makes a person act differently than chronic pain in livestock.

I'd really be the doesn't see well. Does he cock his head funny sometimes while he watches you?

 

[Marsha Cassada]

The great thing about these topics is all the extra information that comes out from owners' experiences.

A euthanasia expert! That is a new one to me. Was the lecture part of a larger symposium?

I think the OP is doing a great job.

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

No. Actually it was a cattle hoof trim school and then a school on how to actually humanely euthanize. It was his last ever school and to date I feel it was hands down the Best course I have ever taken! Just limited to about 12 participants - most were practicing veterinarians. Was cool to be in a learning environment amongst vets! Learned just as much at the bar every night as at the school.

 

[AngC]

I was being politely facetious.
Actually, I was rather flabbergasted that somehow a suggestion was raised that you "calm" a horse with bute or banamime.

I've had some bad things go on here with only 2 horses and have some leftover drugs. Send me your address, and I'll mail the remaining nasty junk to you. I haven't got rid of it yet, because I don't know the law on getting rid of stuff like banamine in the trash.

My mention of similarity to aspirin was based on the vet saying that bute has anti-inflammatory effects similar to ibuprofen. When Baby had laminitis, I reluctantly gave her bute in much lesser doses than vet prescribed. I read all the potential problems, and god-help-me I hope I did her no wrong.

Anyway, to suggest you "calm" your animal with this stuff seems kind of wrong to me.