Friend’s horse was recently prescribed Equioxx for a 2 week trial with very positive results. Vet then prescribed generic firocoxib to continue. Friend says she thinks there is a difference and that the firo is not working as equioxx.Has anyone experienced something similar?
One is the generic form of the other. They’re chemically the same thing, like aspirin and acetylsalicylic acid or tylenol and acetaminophen. So there should be no difference. I suppose it’s possible that obe has s different coating and consequently a different palatability or oral absorption.
Did the friend notice a decrease in comfort level with the generic? Or just no additional improvement?
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One of mine is now on the generic firocoxib after being on Equioxx for a couple of years.One 57 mg tablet daily. I have not noticed any difference in his comfort level since changing over to the generic a couple years ago. But if your friend really thinks the brand name drug is better, I’d suggest she get an rx for that from the vet and try it again to see if it really is more helpful. The price difference really isn’t all that much IMO.
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She said she felt a decrease in his comfort which shows up in his attitude.
Maybe horse needs a change in dosage? Both are chemically the same.
I’ve run into several generic meds that don’t work the same way as their name brand equivalents. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some horses don’t do as well on the generic firocoxib.
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This could be related to “placebo effect,” not on the horse, but on the horse owner. I know both are the same drugs, so the term placebo isn’t correct, but I could think of no better way to label it. Owner bias sounded too accusatory.
I spent a large portion of my career doing clinical trials of analgesics, and know that if the observer is not blinded as to the treatment, bias can occur in assessment of efficacy.
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While there’s a much lower risk then bute of firo causing stomach ulcers, it’s not anywhere close to 0, and some horses are sensitive enough that a day or 2 on one of these drugs causes issues, so 2 weeks could have caused problems. Just another thought
The only real way to find out is put him back on Equioxx and see if he improves. If he does, then he’s one of the oddballs who doesn’t do as well on the generic for whatever reason, but it really must be that the coating isn’t as effective somehow
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What? There is no coating on Equioxx. It’s not a coated product. Which is why we can split the tablets, either to give a partial dose, or use the larger Previcox tablets for cost savings.
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Sorry for my poor choice of word. Inert ingredients, whatever. SOMETHING about the pill is different if a being doesn’t respond as well to a generic (or responds BETTER to the generic)
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I changed my two boys to the generic when it came out and haven’t seen any difference. But I’ve known people for whom the generic of whatever doesn’t work as well as the name brand, so I imagine it could be the same for horses.
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Have used nothing but previcox (quartering dog doses back in the day) or the generic horse version on two horses for donkeys years.
Never have used Equioxx – the premiums we pay for horse branding annoy me – and never have had a problem.
That said, if my horse’s response to the drug changed, I’d first guess his arthritis is progressing, not that the drug formulation is wonky. Occam’s Razor and all that.
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The 57mg pills of E and P are basically the same price. No horse premium.
227mg pills of Previcox ARE cheaper per 57mg(ish) dose, as would be 227mg pills of Equioxx. But horses should NOT have 227mg pills because that’s 4x the normal dose for almost all horses.
Paste will always be more expensive than pills due to increased ingredients, packaging, and shipping.
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What?
Equioxx paste: $5.69 for 57 mg
Equioxx tablets: $1.67 for 57 mg (60 count) or $1.58 for 57 mg (180 count)
How are you getting that paste is “always cheaper than pills”?
FWIW, mine can go about 2-3 weeks on Previcox before I need to add Sucralfate to keep her happy. Your friend may be seeing a reaction to unhappy guts rather than a decreased medication performance.
Thankfully, mine has only had to be on it for a few months at a time (founder) and very occasional short courses for injuries. IME, the gut-comfort window is much larger than for Bute or Banamine, but it eventually does wreak havoc.
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Sorry, was going too many cheaper/more expensive directions. Clearly what I meant should have been obvious by “increased”. I’ll fix that
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As I said, I was an early (off-label) adopter and quartered the dog dosage for a few years before the horse dose came on the market.
Your experience may be different from mine, possibly because I am an Amazon abstainer.
On Valley Vet,
auto-ship 57mg generic firocoxib is 79.39 for 60 pills;
Previcox™️ (for dogs) is $103.07 ;
Equioxx $95.18.
A savings of nearly $95 per year means a lot to me.
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Horse sure can have the 227mg pills if they are quartered, which makes them just under 57mg.
The savings is HUGE!
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Yeah this is how my vet still does it, thankfully.
For a while there were rumblings of vets not being allowed to dispense off label like that (dog drug for horses) but thankfully that seems to have gone away.
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Things must have changed, as I promise, every time I’ve done this comparison, the 57mg pills have been within pennies of each other, if not identical, depending on the website (and not including shipping). I haven’t priced things since the generic for horses came out, so take that for what it’s worth.
You missed the point - a horse should NOT have “a 227mg pill”. Whole pill. Of course people have been quartering the 227mg pills ever since they could. There’s a reason there’s no 227mg pill for horses.
Off label has been and still is legal assuming the prescribing vet has done their due diligence to make sure the drug has at least shown to be safe, either by research, or enough anecdotal use in their profession. SMZs are off label for horses, and very legal
What’s not legal, and hasn’t been for a while, is prescribing a drug not labeled for the species in question when there’s an identical drug (and form and dose) available – Previcox vs Equioxx.
It was legal to Rx Previcox for horses because there wasn’t any firocoxib approved for horses. It became illegal to do so once FDA-approved Equioxx hit the shelves.
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