My gelding would eat his previcox 1/4 tab in his grain no issues. DIdn’t need to top dress it or hide it in anything.
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Previcox takes about 4 days to reach maximum effectiveness. I’d look at the horse on days 5, 6, and 7.
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I would not crush…mine have not intentionally avoided it but one horse has errr not the neatest table manners. As others have suggested, find a soft treat you can stuff it in and mix up a weeks worth of either breakfasts or dinners with one dose in each bag/container or leave in a bag on his door clearly labeled “please give one every morning” previcox is not really effective if it is not given daily.
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Guilherme, your posts do not usually have this tone. When you tried it, did your vet not give you a timeframe of when you should see if it was effective? Waiting “a long time for what will never happen” would be both frustrating and disappointing.
For my senior horse, soon to be 24, it has made a significant difference in his comfort in work and in day to day living.
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I am a little skeptical that oral glucosamine works at all for arthritis. I stopped taking it for myself after reading the NIH’s double blind study of glucosamine chondoitin for knee arthritis where the placebo had similar results for knee cartilage (https://nccih.nih.gov/research/results/gait ). Since supplements are unregulated, and the human supplements are often made from shellfish, I had no way of knowing that I wasn’t wasting money on something contaminated with heavy metals from polluted waters off the coast of Thailand or China or Louisiana. If anyone can point me to a large sample size, well thought-out double-blind trial for horses, I will re-evaluate my opinion.
Pitted dried dates make good pill pockets for horses.
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I would say it takes about a week to really notice a big difference. Although I did a loading dose of 1/2 pill ( 227mg) for the first few days. Then down to a 1/4. I cut a slit into a piece of carrot or apple and shove the pill into the slit. That way the pill doesn’t get lost. I highly recommend you do that.
Previcox is great stuff and can make a huge difference. My older quarter horse has been on it for years . I also gave it to my golden retriever for the last 4 years of her life… it kept her happy and active- without it she was crippled.
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I recently started my horse on previcox who has arthritis as well. We started on 1/2 pill the first day then down to 1/4 pill every day from now on. After a few days I saw some differences but now that he has been on it for a few weeks I notice extreme changes in a good way. My horse who barely could trot before is now easily able to WTC and jump small courses with no problem at all. Previcox is a miracle drug and has kept my horse happy and out of retirement at age 13. Love previcox, give it a few weeks and you will be in awe. Also my horse gets 1/4 pill put in his feed every morning and there hasn’t been any issues.
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So if I missed the loading dose and only started with 1/4 pill what should I do then? Could I give 1/2 pill later on in his getting it? It has been 4 days as of today assuming my barn owner has actually gotten it to him. Also, is it something you are using long term for him? Do you give it every single day year round? Thanks!! I’m excited right now because I am looking at a new home with a small barn and space for horses… it would be so wonderful if I could have him at home.
No big deal about the loading dose, IME. A vet may prescribe the loading dose regimen if there is a distinct injury or event (such as joint injections) that initiates the use of Equioxx/Previcox. For my older horse, we did not do a loading dose, we just started him on the normal daily dose.
OP, please double check with your vet about the medication name and dose your horse has been prescribed. If you are in the US, Equioxx is the medication approved for horses. It was only available as a paste originally, so vets would prescribe Previcox tablets, used for dogs, instead. But technically Previcox tablets had not been approved for use in horses. Now there IS a tablet form of Equioxx, in 57 mg. per tablet.
When posters above are referring to 1/2 or 1/4 of a tablet, I believe they are referring to the large dog Previcox dose, which is a 227 mg tablet. One quarter of the 227 mg Previcox dose (meant for dogs) is equivalent to the normal 57mg dose meant for horses. One half of the 227mg tablet is equivalent to 2 of the 57mg tablets for horses. (Horses respond to a MUCH lower dose of the medication as they metabolize the drug differently than dogs do.)
If you do a search here for Previcox and Equioxx, you will see that horse vets are no longer willing/able to prescribe Previcox for horses, since now there is Equioxx available in tablet form. Previously, vets would prescribe Previcox in an “off label use” fashion when using it for horses, as it was more convenient and less expensive than the paste form of Equioxx (the only approved option for use in horses at the time.) There are also threads discussing the cost of Previcox vs Equioxx tablets per dose.
As as far as long term use, my vets said if I wanted to be super careful, I could give Equioxx for three weeks, then one week off, to protect the liver. However, we decided the benefits of continuous dosing was worth just monitoring liver function via blood sampling. So I give Equioxx daily to my senior, with no breaks in treatment.
TL;DR— Confirm with your vet about dosing for the medication you are using, and about using it long-term.
@Ghazzu, @DrBeckett, and any other vets I am forgetting, please post if this info is not correct or current.
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My feeding trick… i just poke a hole in a carrot chunk with hoof pick,shove the pill in there and hand feed. That way I know it ends up in the horse instead of on the ground. My 23 year old does quite well on Previcox btw.
I’ve had my now 22 y.o. gelding on it for a while a couple of times. He eats it right out of my hand. I did shift to 4 days per week: Mon, Wed, Fri, and Sun. It seemed to work fine. He has been off if for a while, but now I give him natural Vitamin E. The farrier has pronounced him limber, and on Monday the vet pronounced him in the best shape ever.
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I keep a loaf of bread in my tack box. I tear off a piece of a slice and make a little Previcox ball with it. He eats it right up and I can hear the crunch when he chews the pill.
I just grabbed a handful of mashed alfalfa and squeezed it around the 1/4 pill. My mare sucked it up like candy, I’ve also been known to stick the 1/4 pill into the alfalfa mash in her bucket and feed it with the rest of her supplements, Never had a problem with her taking it.
After reading the clinical trial data on Equiox, I would not give my horse a “loading dose” of this drug. You’re just asking for trouble at more than 57 mg.
I think it’s a terrific NSAID for horses, but you should treat it the way you treat other NSAIDS. It does have toxicity and ulcer risks, and the risk increased substantially at high doses in the study animals. I also wouldn’t give my horse a “loading dose” of 4g of bute a day. If 2g bute–or 57 mg previcox–was not enough to make my horse sound, then I would be looking at another treatment.
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Can you explain details of what you’re doing with the vitamin E? That sounds interesting
rz, I picked vitamin E because it’s an anti-inflammatory and the vet said you can’t overdose it. I got HorseTech.com’s supplement which also has selenium, which you can overdose, and is in ground flax. He lost weight last year, for an undetermined reason, and I put him on Blue Seal’s Sentinel LS which has put the weight right back on him. He gets a scoop a day of the grain, the E, and biotin also. I guess it’s pretty much anecdotal. I still ride him 5-6 days a week for at least a half hour (walk-trot of course) and also have a college student who will be home soon and lets him loose at the canter and gallop which he loves. The only thing I added to the equation recently is a Back on Track baby pad which seems to loosen up his back nicely. We are about 4 years away from our Century Ride, and at this point he’ll make it, but I’m not sure about me. Maybe I ought to eat the same stuff!
Do you think the vitamin e has been an effective replacement for the previcox? I’m not wanting to feed Previcox long term if I can help it due to the potential damage to his liver. Thank you!!
I would just continue with your normal dose, it may take a little longer to kick in but shouldn’t cause any issues. Yes my horse gets it every single day year round and will be on it probably for the rest of his life. This is the only stuff that actually works. I’ve tried injections and adequan…etc. but the previcox is the only thing that keeps my horse pain free. It has completely changed his life he now can’t wait for me to get to the barn to ride him. He knickers every single time I walk into the barn. I love previcox. I have a barn in my backyard and having the horses at home is great! Good luck!
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Thank you!! We actually did buy it! It needs a lot of work but I am excited:)
I usually give a 30 day supply and it sounds like she received a 20 day supply to try and see if she liked the results.
After 30 days, my clients seem to have a good idea that it’s working or not rather than perhaps a good day over a bad day as it can happen with the older stiffer horses that we tend to use it in.
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