Meloxicam for horses ETA now SAND colic and may restart meloxicam later

[quietann]

Hi all –

There are a few older threads on meloxicam for horses, but I’m not sure whether things have changed.

I have a 26 YO retired Morgan who has been on Equioxx for 10-ish years due to arthritis (kind of everywhere, but her knees are really bad now.) She seemed to be slowing down, not wanting to walk out as much etc. and her vet said to try meloxicam. She is MUCH better – moving around more, knees don’t tremble, etc.

She gets 18 15 mg pills once a day, in her breakfast. It is off-label for horses, so the vet has to order it for me. The cost is about 1/3 the cost of Equioxx, which makes me wonder why vets don’t prescribe it more often for pain. (I am appreciating the lower cost as I am currently unemployed…)

On another thread from a few years ago, someone mentioned it is good for “bone pain.” I am not sure what this means, but would it cover situations where the cartilage between bones in a joint has worn away?

Anything I should watch for? She has never had abnormal blood work related to being on Equioxx, but had ulcers in 2020-2021, was treated successfully, and now gets a cup of Outlast with her ration balancer at breakfast and dinner.

[Simkie]

I take mobic myself and think it rocks. What I’ve learned is that it’s impact on cox-1 in people is dose dependent. This guy talks about it here:

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/ask-the-doctors-how-does-meloxicam-ease-joint-pain

At the dose you’ve got, you might be hitting that threshold where you’re risking the stomach, so do keep an eye out for that. If you can titer down to find your lowest effective dose, that might be beneficial.

Also check goodrx to see how that compares to the price your vet is getting…this is a common med and you might get a better deal just going to your local pharmacy.

[cilla1]

As far as I know Meloxicam has a higher risk for stomach/ulcers, you may want to give her something in order to protect her stomach. I used Meloxicam for a long time on my dog, it really helped him a lot and he always responded well to half dose, so maybe you can experiment and find the lowest effective dose

[quietann]

The vet is getting me 500 pills for $16.50 so cost isn’t really a concern. I agree of titrating the dose as 18 is high compared to doses on the other threads I read. Thanks!

[Pico_Banana]

I used meloxicam for a long time with one of my dogs to ease her TMJ pain. She was a 70 lb dog so we started at that dose and worked down to determine the smallest effective dose. Turns out the dose for a 20 lb dog was her sweet spot. So you may find a surprisingly low dose is effective.

[quietann]

Well… we are stopping the meloxicam. 2 colics in a week. Vet wants to scope her tomorrow or Thursday… and I’m in the UK, just arrived today for 18 day visit, so… ugh. Blessed is my barn owner!

[trubandloki]

Jingles!

How stressful.

I hope the scoping gives answers that are easily solved.

[quietann]

Well now it’s a temporary stop. She has a lot of stone dust in her manure. She is fed in a hay net not on stone dust, but I’d been giving her a hay ball sometimes and she would roll it around in the stone dust and eat every scrap that fell out. So she’s off meloxicam until her scope but if that’s clear we may put her back on a smaller dose.

HORSES!