A friend in the barn has a bottle of equioxx she no longer needs and offered it to me for my horse. The sticker from the vet covered up the expiration date, so I’m not sure how old the equioxx is. I don’t believe it’s more than a year old, but my horse relies on equioxx for pain management so I’m hesitant to take something that may be expired. Any idea how long it lasts?
Unopened, Equioxx is good for 3 years from manufacture date from what I found here: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/equioxx-epar-product-information_en.pdf
This is a European source, so grain of salt, but I would think the shelf lives would be similar.
If it’s been opened, I would hesitate unless you know how it’s been stored. If the seal has been broken and the medication stored improperly (too hot, too cold, etc.), it can impact the efficacy.
Can you remove the sticker to see the expiration date?
The vet should have the exp date on file.
I used some equioxx this spring that was past the expiration date. I did not have time to drive to the vet and it wasn’t a huge important emergency. It seemed to work fine.
The expiration date is there for federal regulation. It doesn’t “go bad” but may lose efficacy after an extended period of time. Just like any other NSAID would.
Tablet medications are so much more stable than liquid or powder. If you think it’s less than 5 years old, I’d take the chance on it and just pay attention. Have a fresh bottle on order in case it’s lost too much efficacy and your horse has breakthrough symptoms.
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I will say that my dog’s carpofen absolutely lost efficacy-- I ran out of current dog’s carprofen but found a bottle from a previous dog that was 3 years old-- in the bottle prescribed from the vet, not original packaging or anything like that. It did not control old dog’s arthritis pain…new pills did an excellent job. My advice? Try them but monitor the results-- is the horse as comfortable? If not, ditch the old meds and get new ones!
They sell 180 pill bottles so they should be good for at least 6 months after opening. Likely longer if stored properly since they are tablets.
So I just looked at a bottle I got earlier this year, and it’s good until sometime in 2024.
