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Antihistamines how long to help

Hi there, my 25y Arabx gelding started having minor nose bleeds. He has a few last week so I had him in to be scoped and all looked good just some inflammation and some excess phlegm. Started on SMZs and Ceterizine BID on Saturday. He hasn’t had epistaxis since until yesterday he had a smal amount of blood tinged smears on his coat from wiping his nose but nose clean. Today he has another nose bleed. How long to see these meds help? He’s also got PPID which he’s on Pergolide for and doing well otherwise. It is dusty as hell here. He is feed soaked alfalfa cubes, his grain and access to alfalfa hay also. Only dust is environmental and we did have a weather change from hot to overcast today.

The internist that prescribed Zyrtec for my horse for different symptoms suggested I try it for at least a week or two before deciding if it did or didn’t help. I noticed improvement after about 4 days.

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I agree that at least a full week, if not 2, would be a better indicator.

What dose cetirizine is he on? I would be using the max dose to start (.4mg/kg, twice a day) and then once you see results, tapering down to see if you can get to the lowest dose (.2mg/kg) once a day. Sometimes you can even go a bit lower than that.

What’s the humidity like? Low humidity can contribute too

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On this subject, but has anyone found any good deals on the generic Zyrtec? I’m having a harder time finding it this time of year.

If you’re a Costco member you can get 365 of the generic Costco brand for $10.99.

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I am not but I keep making all my friends with Costco memberships grab me some every time they go… I was just wondering if there was a better option! Kroger has the 365 for 15 bucks usually but it’s sold out this time of year.

Costco has it on sale right now with free shipping. You could ask one of your friends to order it for you and have it shipped to your address.

Are you an Amazon prime member? Generic Zyrtec is 300 tabs for $10.93. Free shipping.

Ask your vet if they can price compounded cetirizine. I have no idea the cost, and while some compounded meds are cheaper, some aren’t, and this may not be since there’s a generic tablet available.

It helped my horse in about 4 days. I got the generic Zyrtec at Target as I’m not a Costco member and I didn’t want to wait for online shipping. I got 120 tabs for $19. Cheap to me considering most horse meds! They also a 300 tab bottle for about $36. I discontinued the tablets after about 8-9 days and the symptoms haven’t returned. Figured I can save the rest if the cough flares up again, but it’s been 3 weeks…

Blockquote[quote=“IPEsq, post:2, topic:764248, full:true”]
The internist that prescribed Zyrtec for my horse.
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On first read I saw “The internet prescribed” :thinking: :rofl:

On first read I saw “The internet prescribed” :thinking: :rofl:
[/quote]

:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: Hah I just figured I’d specify the specialty since my performance vet did not want to advise on my horse’s asthma other than to suggest I could check him into rehab to do the water treadmill for conditioning when the air is too bad.

I had been buying from Target, and also found Walmart’s brand isn’t any cheaper. I just ordered a couple more bottles from Amazon, but another boarder buys from Costco and I guess I could pay her to add some for me to her next run. I feel a little less weird buying multiple years’ worth of meds (for a human) via Amazon than I do in person.

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Thanks all. He’s not had a nose bleed since. Knock on wood. I was looking closer at his dose too and he was on the low end so I upped him to mid range but am thinking I might up it to high end tonight. The weather change may have had something to do with it too. I had a mean sinus headache myself the next morning.

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I buy these:

Well, that link didn’t work as well as hoped - they are $13 on Prime and delivered the next day.

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So is that 40 of the 10 mg pills daily? I’m currently giving my mare ten twice daily (so 20 daily) for excessive itchiness, maybe it’s not enough? It hasn’t seemed to help much, although I am loathe to take her off of them in case it is and it’s just not readily apparent.

You missed a decimal :slight_smile: .4mg, not 4mg :slight_smile: I should probably put a leading 0 in there so it’s more obvious there’s a little tiny . in there!

And that’s for a 500kg horse, that 20 pills twice a day at the higher .4mg/kg dose. Meaning, a horse who weights more would be able to get more

So in other words, yes. Forty 10 mg pills daily for a roughly 1100 lb horse (she’s probably not quite that heavy, I need to get her weighed again). And I’m not good at math, decimals, or the metric system! :rofl:

Yep :slight_smile: And DANGIT I totally read your post wrong, I could have sworn you said 40 twice a day! I’m so sorry

Yes, a 500kg/1100lb horse, at 0.4mg/kg twice a day, would get 20 of the 10mg pills twice a day, for a total of 40 pills a day. Whew!

Obviously that’s the high end, but it is probably where I’d start for a horse having real struggles. Get things good and loaded, then see how much you can reduce the dose, and even see if you can get to once a day if you want. I know some horses do well in the end at a bit less than 0.2mg/kg just once a day

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HA! Yeah, forty twice a day would be… a lot! I don’t know if she would willingly eat that many. Right now I just drop the ten in with her feed and I don’t think she even notices. Four times that might have her eating more pills than Balancer!

Yep that’s the dose I increased to. He’s doing good now and since we have gotten damp again (finally! That was really dry for Western Washington!) I took him off and he’s been doing great!