I bought a horse back in January who has a big problem with chronic anxiety and over-reactivity. I’m pretty experienced and also have a good trainer involved. Vet involved. Tried several calming supplements with very little improvement.
Emailed my vet about the possibility of an actual drug for anxiety to help him cope. Anyone given any drugs on a daily basis? Which one(s) and how did it work? Any side effects?
I’ve read the Prozac is effective and side effects were modest from those who tried it.
G.
Have you tried addressing the stomach? I’ve now had three horses in a row who were the classic “constant anxiety” type. Two wound up on ulcer-treatment-management-type products (e.g. omeprazole, Stomach Happy, Ulcer Eraser, etc.) which resulted in an almost 180 degree change. The first one of those 3 was imported to me in Thermal. I spent 3 weeks at Thermal trying all sorts of calming products on her (Perfect Prep, Mag, etc.) with zero effect. Kind of a “duh” moment when I put her on omeprazole at a show a couple of months later and it was like flipping the anxiety into the “off” position almost instantaneously. Managing her for ulcers since has kept that switch turned off. The second horse was a bit of the same, but I immediately went to the stomach rather than trying to manage the “symptom” first.
The third is a pony I have who is just a “worrier”…not anxious per se, but the type who flies backwards whenever you raise your hands (despite never having been hit nor treated poorly) and seems to internalize everything. I put him on Ulcer Eraser to help his allergy/sweet itch issues because all of the Ulcer Eraser ingredients (BOSS, Flax, Chia Seed, Pumpkin Seed, dried cabbage) are great coat additives. Never even occurred to me for a millisecond that his [minorly] anxious behavior could be rooted in his stomach. But he’s suddenly eating like crazy and way less reactive than he was a few months ago.
So my suggestion would be to start with the diet/stomach before trying to manage the brain.
I tried my boy on paxil and i didn’t see much improvement. I think he needed a much higher dose or perhaps a different drug altogether. He gets upset about things and looses his head. For example, if i ride one my other horses, he starts running the opposite fenceline- trying to move away from us. He gallops back and forth, then trots, for hours. I usually resort to tying him up or putting him in the stall. Even then if he gets nervous, he trots in place while flinging his head up and down. I compare it to weaving- it is a neurotic tick. If he were a person, i would say it was an anxiety disorder.
The fireworks set him off the other day… Or it can be as simple as seeing the neighbors truck go by, the kids playing in the yard, or the bugs being bad. If he gets anxious, he trots in place while flinging his head. He is mentally a mess. It doesn’t matter where you put him- on pasture, in the barn, in a dry lot. I tied him under the tree while i rode one of the mares. He was pouring sweat - dripping off his belly. He danced and fussed the entire time i rode, even afterwards when i tied the mare next to him and gave her a bath. I can’t turn him out with other horses- he is aggressive and starts chasing them. He gets anxious and takes it out on the others.
He did give me a really nice ride today but he is still very inconsistent. I will say he is vastly improved from 2 years ago, when he would loose his mind if you even stepped in the pasture with him.
I’m working on a drop the head cue. If he gets upset, i want him to drop his head to the ground and hold it there for as long as it takes for him to calm down. My friend suggested I try benedryl when he gets upset. I did give him some on the 4th- not sure if it helped much. I’m going to keep experimenting with it.
My vet wasn’t much help. She didn’t even want to give me a sedative when he injured himself. I had to put him in stocks and fight him for 30 minutes trying to do meds… I ended up doing some clicker training and that improved things, but it could have been that he was just not as painful…He is fine now.
In general, people seem to regard medication as a short cut to proper training… But some horses are neurotic and definitely need some help with their brain chemistry.
i put my horse on Nexium for gastric ulcers. It seems to help some. Ulcers often cause skin sensitivity.
I posted a response this morning and it was “unapproved” and I’m still not seeing it, so I’ll give the quick recap and hope it shows up still.
I will echo what 4horses said in her last paragraph. I’ve had 3 anxious horses in a row and all 3 have been “cured” by treating for ulcers. I don’t know that any of them have actually had ulcers, but my assumption is that they’re stomach sensitive and so feeding a program “for” ulcers makes a pretty big difference. The first I figured out incidentally, the second I figured out and fixed on purpose, and the third was a total and complete surprise. I was treating him for sweet itch by adding a bunch of coat enhancing type products via UlcerEraser (which is BOSS, dried cabbage, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and flax), and surprise of all surprises, it totally changed his outlook on life.
So my first approach with a sensitive/anxious type now is to start with the stomach and then go from there…especially if calming type products do nothing.
Highly unlikely hoss has ‘anxiety’. More likely ulcers or nutritional deficiency. Treat ulcers with Gastrogard for a month (not pop rocks, not papaya juice, no home remedies), and perform a fecal occult blood test as well. After you’ve treated ulcers with a traditional western medicine protocol, then have him live on a good ulcer supplement.
Also, B1 (edited), Magnesium, E can all contribute to behavior you describe. Have vet pull blood and test, or just start supplementing with Magnesium (I like Magnesium 5000) – wait a month or so to check for improvement, then add B12 wait/ evaluate, then E…
Extremely rare is the horse who actually needs & benefits from psychotropic drugs. Have you performed head rads on this hoss? Infected Teeth/ tumor can explain “anxiety” type reactions as well.
Long ago we had one such horse.
A thin made sweet, beautiful little bay gelding, Doc Bar cutting bred quarter horse.
Even when grazing out to pasture with the other horses, head down, his hind end was doing a little dance and he would throw his head up and dance a bit, then go back to grazing.
Tied to the fence he walked back and forth without stop, for hours if you would let him.
He was not frantic and wild eyed when jigging, but very fast and quick moving.
He was fine to ride, other than prone to buck if you were not watching him.
He was much better after we had him a while, but reverted to jigging when anything was happening around him.
Sold him and in his new place he reverted to his old non-stop jigging.
We found out they were feeding him like all their other hard working horses, heavy on a grain ration and free choice wheat hay.
Once they tried changing him to mostly alfalfa, is all we feed, he calmed down considerably.
Since alfalfa can act as a stomach buffer, if those are part of the problem, probably so as those behaviors would be apt to cause ulcers, maybe treating for ulcers could help?
It’s B1 not B12 that helps with horse anxiety along with Magnesium. B1 controls nervous reaction and there are several
good product online.
You are absolutely correct. Thank you for that.
The university vet recently prescribed my mare (see post on reactive horse…) the drug Trazodone. It is an anti-depressant that increases serotonin levels. More commonly used for anxiety in people and dogs. It’s relatively inexpensive (I say that compared to how much I’ve also spent on ulcergard, magnesium, etc).
I will say it is working really well…better than anything I’ve tried. It kicked in fairly quickly too. It’s similar to giving her ace…but without the slowed down feeling (my mare is super anxious and reactive). This just makes her spooks non explosive and she is not freaking over everything. I don’t think many horse vets are familiar with it (based on my home vet’s reaction when I showed it to her). Also, pretty much no side effects unless you overdose them.
Are you sure there’s no pain creating the anxiety and over reactivity? Have seen just plain old Bute given for a suspected hoof bruise create a much calmer horse. Seen it again with one of those mystery lameness hunts that eventually turned out to be an old hind suspensory. Both of those horses were known to be difficult and sensitive over a long period of time and that temperment unexpectedly disappeared with a simple Bute test
Might go with Previcox for the tummy in case it is pain from ulcers but it’s worth looking into.
If it’s not pain related (including ulcers or neurologic pain), I have found Prozac to be helpful.
Magnesium worked well for mine.
Thanks everyone!!! I’ll try answering questions here.
Ulcers—haven’t scoped him. But, I did give him generic Nexium for 2 months without any change.
Pain in his back—I doubt that’s it because he is perfectly comfortable and usually calm if he’s in a familiar environment, such as his pasture. The problem doesn’t show up until I take him in a physical area/location that is unfamiliar—even 50 ft, and you would think a lion was going to get him. His reaction is above and beyond what I would expect from a horse who is otherwise cooperative and sweet.
Supplements I’ve tried—some he’s still receiving because I think they might be making a little difference, and I do mean a little:
Magnesium, CBD, Smartpak Tranquillity, Via-Calm.
My vet doesn’t see anything obvious wrong with him.
Thanks everyone!
I’ll second (third? fourth?) treating for ulcers. My extremely anxious mare exhibited zero signs of ulcers- her weight was fine, she wasn’t irritable, she ate well, she was willing to work. Her lifestyle was low grain, high forage, lots of turnout, lived in a group of horses she liked, etc. But she was very anxious all the time- just tense and on edge constantly. Little things would upset her (like a piece of hay blowing across the barn aisle where she was cross tied) and she would never calm down. I tried calming supplements, changes to her lifestyle, made sure her tack fit, had her checked out for physical problems that might cause pain, etc. I fed Nexium for a couple of months, too. Nothing made a difference.
I treated her for ulcers and it was like magic. She’s way less reactive and nervous, and if something spooks her, it’s fairly easy to get the hamsters back on the wheel. My vet recommended a powdered daily dose of omeprazole/ranitidine; I fed it for about two months, then backed off and she’s been off the medication for about two months.
Good luck with your horse! Having an anxious horse is so frustrating.
Has anyone tried Hemp oil for anxiety issues in their horse?
Just addressing the ulcer comment. Just because you treated him with nexium and saw no change does not mean that it is not stomach related. Regardless of what else you do, I would add a stomach supplement. I’ve used - very successfully - all of the following: Ulcer Eraser, THE Equine Edge Gastro Plus, Stomach Happy, and SmartDigest Ultra (this was the least effective of the group, but seems to work well enough for my TB who’s generally less “nervous” than the rest)…to be clear, I don’t use all at the same time, just that I’ve used each of those on different horses at different times and seen (over a 4-ish week period) a significant difference in my nervous-type horses. Also, I’ve posted many times about omeprazole (nexium is very similar) causing one of my horses to develop hind gut ulcers. So speaking from my own experience, going to a drug like that does not necessarily help things.
Breeze2752, I have one of my horses on CBD pellets & PEA for pain issues and it works sufficiently. I have noticed he is slightly more mellow, but not hugely. He will still get startled, but when stalled or grazing he’s less active indeed. For problems the OP describes I’m not sure it would be strong enough.
I have tried CBD myself for pain and/or anxiety and it didn’t do anything, so very depending on the individual.
One thing I have observed, the flies have very little interest in this horse, he’s the only one standing there, with barely a fly landing on him and not fly spray needed, nice side effect 
OP, consider trying OTC Phenibut powder, do taper down when taking horse off it. (google phenibut, it’s as strong as many rx anti-anxiety meds)
An RX med that will mellow a horse substantially in my previous experience is Gabapentin at max dose, which I believe was 20mg/kg (need to check history however). But this is expensive.
Gabapentin had one of my guys so mellow, he was better than bombproof, he was on it for 6 months+ no real side effects noted except for being dull.
I haven’t read the other responses but I took on a mare who came to me a mental and physical mess and had been returned to a rescue (she was pulled from a kill pen initially and was fine - just not started).
The adopter sent her to a cowboy. Later, the adopter called the rescue and said she had to return the horse. When they went to pick her up (for the return to the rescue) the barn owner forced them to load her on a busy road. Yeah, these are the kind of people this poor horse was forced to have handle her.
Once I got her, teeth done (terrible hooks and sores), ton of bodywork (massage, chiro, acu and including the AWESOME Vicki Wilson working on her and releasing a mass of tight tissue in front of her S/I area and other chiro work), I later had her scoped and treated for ulcers, and then most recently finding she’d been suffering from allergies. Skin test by dermatologist at OSU finding many allergies with most severe reaction including molds, alfalfa, some trees, grasses, etc. She’s now getting a formulary to help her w her allergies and so far so good. No nasal drip any longer - she’d had one since I got her and I was always wondering what was up with that.
She is finally a different horse and relaxed. My vote is pain and possible allergies. My mare had a constant nasal drip that always had me wondering…now I know it was allergies. Don’t get a serum blood draw - get a skin test with a dermatologist.
Can you tell us about your horse’s physical state? What does her body feel like? The condition of her muscle and skin. Is it soft or is it hard? Can you post pictures? How does she/he move? Have you had bodywork done?
Agree on ulcers but will add I had a horse who did not respond at all to magnesium oxide, but it was a night and day difference on a triple dose of MagRestore - dimag malate. He stayed on that to the end of his days.
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