I know the side effects of this medication and how it works but have never known anyone who has used it. Are there typical worrisome reasons for not using it? Horror stories that I need to be aware of? Got a pasture sound horse I would love to lightly trail ride and thought it may benefit the horse to use it. Thanks
I gave this to a late lamented laminitic pony, on the advice of my vet. It didn’t seem to me to do much of anything, to be perfectly honest.
What condition are you aiming to treat?
I think the main complaint is that some think it doesn’t do anything and is a waste of money. I’m not in that camp.
I’ve last used it for a laminitic horse as a vasodilator, to help with circulation. One vet preferred this for that purpose while another has me use ace instead as it has the added benefit of sedation.
I don’t know of any bad side effects, at least that I can recall, but I’m sure your vet can address that. I have seen a marked increase in hoof growth in horses that are on it for awhile. It is one of those things that if my vet recommends it, I’m willing to try it. Much easier to use in liquid form than the pills, but that might require compounding, I can’t recall for sure.
Well, this was prescribed for a mare of mine. When we returned to the barn after the vet clinic visit, she was eating it out of my hand while my husband unhooked the trailer, then she suddenly dropped like a stone in her stall – I was lucky not to be caught under her as she fell.
I hollered to my husband to hook the trailer back up, pronto, and cheerleaded her back to her feet. Managed to load that wobbly girl – what a trooper she was – and carefully haul her the two miles back to the clinic. I had phoned the vet from the barn (this was pre-cell phone), and he was waiting in the parking lot with the appropriate medications. He apologized for prescribing it, but I didn’t blame him – how would he know she’d react like this?
We were fortunate that the clinic was so close, and that she had the type of cooperative, trusting, levelheaded personality – and the heart – to make the effort it took her to get up, walk to the trailer with strong verbal encouragement from both of us, and load. A horse of a different character might not have, or might have taken too long to do so.
Needless to say, the mare never received that drug again; it’s not been prescribed to any of my other horses, but I’d probably hesitate to use it after this experience. I’ll never forget it – when she collapsed, I thought she might be dying in front of me. I still can’t believe we managed to get her to the clinic for treatment, under the circumstances.
I’m sorry about your horse Jarpur. Never ever heard of such a reaction. I can think of a half dozen horses in my orbit that have had isoxsuprine and no problem, but with any med, I suppose there is a chance of an adverse reaction. When I did a quick google search, all I see on side effects says they are rare and include changes in blood pressure, increased heart rate, or digestive upset. It is slow to be absorbed so I would not expect such a sudden reaction, but … horses… they find a way to surprise us.
Thanks guys, he has navicular. He is sound so I think i’ll just do a short ride and see how things go first.
If the navicular isn’t crippling, you might just go with a good pair of boots and pads.
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I was prescribed this for my navicular mare and it did nothing. Less than nothing. I would look at other options if I were you.
So, actually, Ace can have the same effects on horses that that Jarpur described. No medication is without side effects or possible risks. That said, the benefits can far out weight the miniscule chance that your horse will be the one who reacts badly.
It’s not going to noticeably improve the horse right away, like an anti-inflammatory might. It’s more of a supportive medication. So it’s hard to gauge the effectiveness of it unless you use it long term. I think a lot of vets prescribe it because it’s fairly inexpensive, has generally no to little side effects, and the chance it will help a difficult and painful foot problem even a little bit makes it an easy go-to medication.
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This was prescribed for a laminitic horse by an old time track vet. But when I read the literature about it online, decided it wasn’t worth continuing.
I agree that there is always a chance of an adverse reaction with any medication; it happens. It was just such a shock! This mare was not particularly sensitive – she didn’t have bad reactions to vaccinations, or seasonal allergies, for instance. But Boom!, down she went with the isoxsuprine.
I consider ourselves lucky that she fell while we were still in the barn, while the trailer was still mostly hooked up, that her stall was located almost at the entrance of the barn (so we only had to walk her past the tack room to be outside), that my husband was able to back our trailer up to the gate (a few yards from the barn), that we were able to reach the vet immediately, etc. Driving her oh so carefully to the clinic, we had to cross a rough railroad crossing, and my heart was in my throat as I listened for a thump that would tell me she’d lost her footing, but it never came.
At the clinic, after the emergency injections she received, we hung around for 20 minutes with the veterinarian, waiting to see how she did – she bounced right back, as a matter of fact, it was night and day.
Loved this mare, which I had imported, and trained myself – this was long ago, and she has since passed, but my current riding horse is one of her grandsons.
I had two horses on it. Worked wonders. My big paint horse had laminitic changes, after we did the Isoxuprine and got him with a great farrier, we were actually able to wean off the Isox. We originally crushed it in the coffee grinder, but then one day we forgot to crush and the barn just gave him the whole pills…that goober ate 30 whole Isoxuprine with a SMALL handful of grain… The only “side effect” I’ve ever had is that it’s bitter, so they may not eat it? This was also over 10, probably closer to 15 years ago, so that may have changed?
According to my vets, they stopped prescribing Isoxuprine because it doesn’t do anything. Talk to your vet about Osphos if its a navicular issue.
echoing what everyone else says. this was the rage in the 80s and has been found do pretty much do nothing for managing navicular horses. Only benefits the person selling it
I don’t have any experience with either of these but I’ve heard great things about jiaogulan for sore feet, navicular or aka caudal heel pain.
https://uckele.com/jiaogulan-powder.html
You can have films that look like a train wreck, but if the back of the foot is healthy many “navicular” horses appear sound. Diet, a correct balanced trim, treating any thrush present and boots with pads or Cloud boots would probably help a lot.
I had Isox recommended by a Vet back in the day, for a horse with navicular changes. The Vet was Bill Moyer,back when he ran the outpatient clinic at New Bolton. He also said that he felt it was fairly useless unless you combined it with bute, and then, he felt it had a “synergistic” action. I did use it on that horse, with some bute, for a period of time. Then, the shoeing changes we had made seemed to be keeping him together, and I stopped using either of the drugs.
Used short term and very successfully on a navicular pony here about 7 years ago. He was crippled lame. And with isox and particular shoeing got to point he’s off all meds barefoot and jumping out of paddocks.
