Look! It’s the latest cure all! I’m leaning towards snake oil but would love to hear from someone who has actually used them or who can at least talk scientifically about the company’s claims.
Thanks. I have a friend who can manage her horse’s head shaking reasonably well, but is always looking for a better answer .
I don’t know about all the issues they claim to improve, but a friend has a 3rd level draft cross who developed anhydrosis and the patches got him sweating again.
Over the course of two summers she had tried every oral supplement on the market, beer in his feed, etc -pretty much every treatment she and her vet had ever heard of, none of which had any significant effect.
The patches worked very well for this horse. She’s planning do another course of them this spring to get him off on the right foot.
Her vet told her that in his experience they either work well or not at all for a particular horse. They ONLY were discussing non-sweaters, I have no knowledge of any other results.
ETA: This horse is/was already on electrolytes and always a very good drinker before using the patches.
I tried them on my HS horse. They did not work. (he is now retired due to HS’ers because NOTHING worked) That said, they definitely did something. The first night he wore them he drank almost 2 full buckets of water. If I had a horse with a sweating problem I woudl ABSOLUTELY try them…
Anything that helps a horse sweat more or drink more water sounds good. I use orange gatorade for electrolytes for my horses who do sweat a lot already.
Always curious, I went to their page. Lots of facts about the importance of electrolytes which are true, but only wild claims regarding their actual product. In particular, this is supposed to work by allowing the water vapor to enter the patch, where the water coats the electrolytes. The electrolytes in their water coating can then be “recognized” through the patch by ion channels in the skin, resulting in signalling to balance the electrolytes in the body. Off the top of my head, here are some issues with this “process”
I’ll pass.
I had weight loss surgery (WLS) 3 years ago. WLS patients generally should not take vitamins in pills/capsules as they do not absorb correctly due to the changes in anatomy from the surgeries- both sleeve and RNY. It is recommended to take chewable vitamins. A number of people have gone with the vitamin patches since they sound easy compared to taking multiple vitamins every day. They sounded like they would bypass the issues of malabsorption that is common in WLS patients. The practice I went to does not recommend the vitamin patches. Over the years they have had a number of patients that used patches who had low numbers when they tested their vitamin levels. The patches did not live up to their claims.
I would be worried that the same would be true of the electrolyte patches especially when you add in fur possibly blocking absorption.
I’m not familiar with the specifics of vitamin patches, but transdermal delivery can be a very useful and effective way of delivering medications. For transdermal patches, the idea is for the medicine to leave the patch and migrate through the skin into the bloodstream. However, the Equiwinner website specifically says that “Nothing goes into the horse’s body - it simply recognizes the electrolytes in the patches and responds to them”
Transdermal dosing is usually best for uncharged and reasonably hydrophobic molecules, and electrolytes are pretty much the exact opposite of a good transdermal candidate. Additionally, you can typically only get a few milligrams/day delivery with a patch. I don’t see how you could get enough of a horse’s daily requirements of electrolytes delivered through a patch.
I’ve used them on more than one horse. They do actually work. How? I have no idea… but when you are in that situation you don’t really care that much about the how. They also have a money back guarantee, so it’s a pretty low risk scenario.
My guess is one of the differences between vitamins and medications is the level of oversight by the FDA is very difference between drugs and supplements.
We’e you using them for anhydrosis or head shaking or??
I used them for anhidrosis and it worked for my horse, and witnessed it working on a friend’s Friesian the first day he wore the patch. He had a full body sweat going.
I used the patches for two or three years. After that I had luck adding electrolytes to his feed every day (Progressive’s brand) and that worked for him too (oral electrolytes didn’t ever work before I used the patches).
I used them once for anhydrosis following a lengthy pneumonia treatment in my filly. They did not work for her but they immediately refunded my entire purchase price no questions asked so I would not hesitate to try them again if the need arose. Literally nothing to lose.
I had a friend who tried them on a head shaking horse. She had tried every other remedy for this issue already, with no success. I was extremely skeptical. They made no difference to the horse.
I know of one person who used the patches on a young OTTB that had stopped sweating. The horse was back to sweating before the series of patches was over.
I have a friend who has a warm blood gelding that head shakes. She uses the net over his nose when being ridden and has no issues with head shaking. One day he had partly dislodged the net due to itching from a sweaty ride and the increase in head shaking was immediate. She put the net back in place and he stopped shaking.
Ok folks, I got him to agree to $1300 and a $600 stipend to the rescue. THEY NEED TO SEE A VET ASAP. We need to raise $1900 and the babies will be safe. The paypal is wwfmpayitforward@comcast.net
This is a 501c3 so within COTH guidelines.
I tried them on a horse with anhidrosis. Nothing.
I hadn’t heard they helped with head shaking until now, but the horse was also diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia, and there was no change.
I used them for anhidrosis.
Trans-dermal medications are well know in human medicine. I suspect they would work in horses if you shaved the hair and exposed the skin.
But this system is not a “trans-dermal” system. From the website:
[I]Equiwinner is a patented, non-transdermal patch. It serves as a natural electrolyte-balancing system.
Safe, effective and easy to use.
Simple 10-day treatment costs less than constantly trying to treat or manage symptoms.
One single treatment can be effective for months, even up to one full year, when used as directed.
Equiwinner patches contain only natural balanced electrolytes. Nothing goes into the horse’s body - it simply recognizes the electrolytes in the patches and responds to them. No side effects. And Equiwinner will never test positive in any competition, race, event or sport.[/I]
This is eerily reminiscent Bachs flower essences or homeopathy. Since IMO both those modalities are wishful thinking I can’t help but put this in the same category.
G.
Who cares?
My Irish Sport Horse stopped sweating after about a year after moving to Ft Myers, Florida. This was back in 2008 and we tried beer first (which worked for a while) and then One A/C and every medication available. We were getting to the point of having to move her back North. I searched on the internet and came across the Equiwinner patches. We tried one box and nothing happened so they sent me one more box of 10 patches, since they are guaranteed. Near the end of the cycle of the second round of 10 patches I started to see sweat marks where the receptors had been and low and behold she started sweating! I did one more treatment 6 months later and that was it, she has been sweating regularly ever since. They literally saved the day. So, they might not work on every horse, but they sure worked on my mare 
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