# Paracetamol as a pain killer for horses



## oldie48 (9 April 2016)

The old TB, who developed cellulitis on Thursday is making a good recovery, thank goodness. Not out of the woods yet but walking, eating and is a lot brighter.  To get him comfortable enough to move he had an IV painkiller but also 20 tabs of paracetamol x2 daily. He's still on the paracetamol, amongst other things which work very. I thought I'd share this as I'd never heard of using it for horses, it's obviously a lot cheaper if you buy it from the chemist and it can be used alongside other pain relief. My husband has been out buying it for me. As you can only buy 16 from supermarkets, he went to our local Boots and asked how many he could buy for a horse, pharmacist told him "none" so he had to do the rounds of all our local shops. He was out again this morning in a different town doing the same and came home with 96,couldn't buy any from Boots as it was the same pharmacist who obviously covered 2 branches and she recognised him. I could have had them from the vets but I suspect it would have been a lot more expensive. Wilko was the cheapest at 20p for 16!


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## MotherOfChickens (9 April 2016)

never tell a pharmacist you are buying anything for an animal-they cannot legally let you have it. I've not heard of using paracetamol in horses before though, interesting! Can you not get a prescription from the vet? still probably more expensive than OTC but less hassle.

Aldi are good for cheap OTC drugs fyi.


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## Crugeran Celt (9 April 2016)

I have given my mare paracetamol when she had a  abscess,  it definitely eased her discomfort.


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## hobo (9 April 2016)

Never heard of that, was there a reason that you have not used bute ? I would think it is a lot easier to get bute in to a horse than 40 tablets.


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## oldie48 (9 April 2016)

He knows that now, they an sell you 32 for a person and I think he hoped they'd sell him more! Yes, I could have got them from the vet but they would have been very expensive in comparison. He'll have had over 100 by the time we're done and I think the vet bill will be pretty big anyway (not that I begrudge a single penny) 



MotherOfChickens said:



			never tell a pharmacist you are buying anything for an animal-they cannot legally let you have it. I've not heard of using paracetamol in horses before though, interesting! Can you not get a prescription from the vet? still probably more expensive than OTC but less hassle.

Aldi are good for cheap OTC drugs fyi.
		
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## oldie48 (9 April 2016)

hobo said:



			Never heard of that, was there a reason that you have not used bute ? I would think it is a lot easier to get bute in to a horse than 40 tablets.
		
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He's on 2 sachets of bute twice daily as well but you can give paracetamol as well. Pain relief is really important with cellulitis as you need to make the horse comfortable enough so they will move. You crush the tablets into a fine powder and I mixed with a little hot water then added little orange cordial and then used a syringe, got the bute in at the same time.


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## Enfys (9 April 2016)

Here in Canada we use aspirin.


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## FinkleyAlex (9 April 2016)

Never heard of giving bute but I sympathise re the cellulitis - my old boy (24) got cellulitis in February and it took a good 3/4 weeks of substantial painkillers and 2 changes of antibiotics before he recovered...he was very nearly put to sleep! Luckily he has made a full recovery.


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## oldie48 (9 April 2016)

so please that yours has got over it, did he respond to the first lot of antibiotics? Did you discover what had triggered it? Mine is still not there yet but the swelling has greatly reduced and he's able to walk now without dragging his toe. He initially presented with what looked like an abscess in the hoof, very lame and uncomfortable but nothing noticeable on the leg, perhaps a bit of warmth in the hock but he has some arthritis. Went down hill unbelievably quickly late Thursday morning. Farrier had come to check hoof and noticed some swelling and heat on the inside of the hock, within an hour he was down in the stable with a huge leg, a high temp and TBH I thought we'd have to PTS as he was in so much pain. Vet was superb, gave him a massive IV painkiller and three of us managed to get him to his feet and out into the field so I was able to walk him every half hour. I honestly didn't think he'd last the night but here we are Saturday and I've just taken him for a 20min walk down the lane and he nearly pulled me over to get at the long grass. He's 28 and been exceptionally well all 17 years I've had him, has a very good quality of life and an important job (Mr B's BFF) I hope he makes the full recovery yours has.



FinkleyAlex said:



			Never heard of giving bute but I sympathise re the cellulitis - my old boy (24) got cellulitis in February and it took a good 3/4 weeks of substantial painkillers and 2 changes of antibiotics before he recovered...he was very nearly put to sleep! Luckily he has made a full recovery.
		
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## milliepops (9 April 2016)

no idea at all whether the same can apply with horses, but don't see why not... but when I got it in my face, the normal ABs they give made a marginal improvement but not as fast as expected, so I had to to back and get some different ones.I then had an extended course to get on top of it.  I asked for the long course of different ones immediately when I got it the second time.

Just mentioning it in case he seems to take a while to get back on track - might be worth asking if he needs some different ones to kick it.  Glad to hear he's on the mend though.


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## oldie48 (9 April 2016)

thanks. I can't imagine how painful it must have been for you. Do you know why you got it?



milliepops said:



			no idea at all whether the same can apply with horses, but don't see why not... but when I got it in my face, the normal ABs they give made a marginal improvement but not as fast as expected, so I had to to back and get some different ones.I then had an extended course to get on top of it.  I asked for the long course of different ones immediately when I got it the second time.

Just mentioning it in case he seems to take a while to get back on track - might be worth asking if he needs some different ones to kick it.  Glad to hear he's on the mend though. 

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## milliepops (9 April 2016)

The first time I was at dressage camp and it was probably just from being grotty and scratching my face, so  bit of something manky got into a tiny scratch. There was nothing to see by way of an injury, doctor had a good look and couldn't see anything either.  I remember being a bit itchy when I was there - I'm so allergic to everything horse related that there's rarely a day I'm not itchy or sneezy  so I probably just should have been more aware of having clean hands haha!

second time i was staying away for work, so in theory I was already clean and tidy - just bad luck I guess. the Dr did say I'd be more susceptible to it, and my mother gets it from time to time on her legs, just from bramble scratches etc so perhaps it's an inherited predisposition? Who knows.


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## Dave's Mam (9 April 2016)

FinkleyAlex said:



			Never heard of giving bute but I sympathise re the cellulitis - my old boy (24) got cellulitis in February and it took a good 3/4 weeks of substantial painkillers and 2 changes of antibiotics before he recovered...he was very nearly put to sleep! Luckily he has made a full recovery.
		
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I have had cellulitis myself.  It's excruciating.  I had it in my leg from an infected insect bite.  It's awful, isn't it Milliepops?


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## Meowy Catkin (9 April 2016)

Paracetamol is a crap painkiller. I wouldn't go through all that bother for something that is so ineffective, there must be something better that the vet can prescribe.


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## pixie (9 April 2016)

You can buy up to 100 paracetamol tabs from a pharmacy at one time, though it is at pharmacists discretion.  Certainly it shouldn't be difficult to buy 2x32 tabs from one pharmacy anyways.  If asked you could perhaps say that you are stocking up your holiday home in a foreign country?


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## oldie48 (9 April 2016)

The paracetamol is being used alongside other painkillers that are being used at the maximum safe dose, point is that horse needs to be comfortable enough to move but not so doped up that it will fall over. Having seen the horse respond I'm confident that I don't agree with your comment. 



Faracat said:



			Paracetamol is a crap painkiller. I wouldn't go through all that bother for something that is so ineffective, there must be something better that the vet can prescribe.
		
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## Moomin1 (9 April 2016)

oldie48 said:



			so please that yours has got over it, did he respond to the first lot of antibiotics? Did you discover what had triggered it? Mine is still not there yet but the swelling has greatly reduced and he's able to walk now without dragging his toe. He initially presented with what looked like an abscess in the hoof, very lame and uncomfortable but nothing noticeable on the leg, perhaps a bit of warmth in the hock but he has some arthritis. Went down hill unbelievably quickly late Thursday morning. Farrier had come to check hoof and noticed some swelling and heat on the inside of the hock, within an hour he was down in the stable with a huge leg, a high temp and TBH I thought we'd have to PTS as he was in so much pain. Vet was superb, gave him a massive IV painkiller and three of us managed to get him to his feet and out into the field so I was able to walk him every half hour. I honestly didn't think he'd last the night but here we are Saturday and I've just taken him for a 20min walk down the lane and he nearly pulled me over to get at the long grass. He's 28 and been exceptionally well all 17 years I've had him, has a very good quality of life and an important job (Mr B's BFF) I hope he makes the full recovery yours has.
		
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My mare had cellulitis a few years ago from a tiny superficial kick wound on her upper hind leg.  I honestly thought she had broken her leg from the way she was dragging her leg behind her, and the swelling all the way up from pastern to stifle was immense.  She had AB's and bute, and made a very rapid recovery over a week or so.


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## Meowy Catkin (10 April 2016)

oldie48 said:



			The paracetamol is being used alongside other painkillers that are being used at the maximum safe dose, point is that horse needs to be comfortable enough to move but not so doped up that it will fall over. Having seen the horse respond I'm confident that I don't agree with your comment.
		
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I'm glad that the horse is responding well to the painkillers, but it's not just my own experiences that lead me to be critical of paracetamol. It has been shown (in a proper study) to be ineffective with chronic pain.


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## Moomin1 (10 April 2016)

Faracat said:



			I'm glad that the horse is responding well to the painkillers, but it's not just my own experiences that lead me to be critical of paracetamol. It has been shown (in a proper study) to be ineffective with chronic pain.
		
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Would that just be one study?  One study does not prove anything.  In any case, cellulitis is not necessarily 'chronic' pain, as my mare proved. She recovered from the pain within a week or so, and after that it was simply subsidence of the oedema which  needed to take place.


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## Regandal (10 April 2016)

Way back in the dark ages, when I worked in orthopaedics, we gave the major ops a cocktail post-op.  Diclofenac, codeine and paracetamol.  The intention was to hit as many different pain receptors as possible.  Very effective.  Using non-steroidals and paracetamol together seems somehow to enhance the effect of each.


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## Moomin1 (10 April 2016)

Regandal said:



			Way back in the dark ages, when I worked in orthopaedics, we gave the major ops a cocktail post-op.  Diclofenac, codeine and paracetamol.  The intention was to hit as many different pain receptors as possible.  Very effective.  Using non-steroidals and paracetamol together seems somehow to enhance the effect of each.
		
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I can fully see how that would be very effective.  Diclofenac is fab, and codeine too.  Paracetamol deals with minor stuff for me.  Ha, can you imagine my reaction when I was offered two paracetamol 5 hours into my labour when my baby was back to back?  I have to say I was a little curt in my response.


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## Meowy Catkin (10 April 2016)

Yes, a study into chronic back pain. However having unfortunately needed to attend a pain clinic and combining my own experiences and those of the other attendees, I'm not surprised by the outcome of the study. I have indeed tried combinations of drugs myself, including morphine, codeine and ibuprofen along with paracetamol (not all at once LOL) and the drugs singly. I would put paracetamol in the useless category.

Sorry to derail your thread OP, having just had a horrid hospital appointment yesterday, painkillers and their effectiveness are a very pertinent topic currently. I hope your horse fully recovers soon.


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## fburton (10 April 2016)

It wouldn't surprise me if the efficacy of painkillers varied as much in our animals as it appears to do between people. I personally have found paracetamol to be highly effective with certain types of pain, while ibuprofen is less effective (and happens to make me feel ill - maybe why it's less good as a painkiller in my case?). I haven't yet seen any literature that specifically recognizes the subjective element of pain relief and differential efficacy.


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## oldie48 (10 April 2016)

No problem, actually I do think the combination has worked well for my horse and thanks, hopefully he's on the mend.



Faracat said:



			Sorry to derail your thread OP, having just had a horrid hospital appointment yesterday, painkillers and their effectiveness are a very pertinent topic currently. I hope your horse fully recovers soon.
		
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## Regandal (10 April 2016)

I found boswellia (for humans) very good. As effective as naproxen for arthtritic pain,  without the side effects.  I give my wb the horse stuff for sidebone and ringbone.


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## darli (10 April 2016)

Regandal said:



			Way back in the dark ages, when I worked in orthopaedics, we gave the major ops a cocktail post-op.  Diclofenac, codeine and paracetamol.  The intention was to hit as many different pain receptors as possible.  Very effective.  Using non-steroidals and paracetamol together seems somehow to enhance the effect of each.
		
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This is exactly what I was given when I had my leg reset - it does the trick!


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## Whoopit (10 April 2016)

Yep, used it for my dainty 15.1hh chestnut Thoroughbred mare who was so accident prone.

We worked it out that put in a blender and ground to a powder so I could mix into feed, she needed about a teaspoon of it. 

Worked just fine with no issue.


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## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (10 April 2016)

Apparently paracetamol is poisonous to dogs though?? Just flagging up in case anyone is thinking of giving it to Fido...........................


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## fburton (10 April 2016)

MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:



			Apparently paracetamol is poisonous to dogs though?? Just flagging up in case anyone is thinking of giving it to Fido........................... 

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Good point - I'm glad you mentioned this.

Paracetamol is even _more_ toxic to cats, btw.


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## MotherOfChickens (10 April 2016)

MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:



			Apparently paracetamol is poisonous to dogs though?? Just flagging up in case anyone is thinking of giving it to Fido........................... 

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hmm, the dosing is completely different in dogs but it used to be used quite a lot- its ibuprofen thats really toxic. there's now better painkillers available and I am not recommending it whatsoever fwiw.


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## scrapster (10 April 2016)

Apparently you can use paracetamol for laminitus too. My boy has slight copd, he has an inhaler and I had to get a child face mask for it from the pharmacy, my vet said not to say it was for a horse as they wouldn't sell it and then said they do the same with paracetamol, where whole yards go into tesco to get the allowed quota! Good luck x


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## MileAMinute (10 April 2016)

My (highly reputable) vet advised me to give 500mg paracetamol to my beagle when he suffered with hip dysplasia. Interesting.


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## Nari (10 April 2016)

This is very interesting & I may have a chat with my vet. I have a big horse recovering from laminitis (Cushings) who's got very stiff through his arthritic hocks after 7 months box rest & we can't use any form of nsaid because they upset his gut even on omeprazole. He's on a low level of codeine phosphate & boswellia, when he'll eat it, but it would be nice to have some back up.


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## oldie48 (10 April 2016)

don't know if this is any help, but I've had to get a lot of different rather unpleasant drugs down him. He's very suspicious of anything that tastes different so I've been mixing them with concentrated orange cordial and using a syringe. He's tolerated them pretty well and is accepting that he has to have them. He's gone off his feed completely but is happy to eat grass and hay.



Nari said:



			This is very interesting & I may have a chat with my vet. I have a big horse recovering from laminitis (Cushings) who's got very stiff through his arthritic hocks after 7 months box rest & we can't use any form of nsaid because they upset his gut even on omeprazole. He's on a low level of codeine phosphate & boswellia, when he'll eat it, but it would be nice to have some back up.
		
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## Moomin1 (10 April 2016)

MileAMinute said:



			My (highly reputable) vet advised me to give 500mg paracetamol to my beagle when he suffered with hip dysplasia. Interesting.
		
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Paracetamol in larger doses over long periods is toxic to dogs, but some vets do advise small doses of it which isn't thought to have any adverse effect.


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## Nari (10 April 2016)

oldie48 said:



			don't know if this is any help, but I've had to get a lot of different rather unpleasant drugs down him. He's very suspicious of anything that tastes different so I've been mixing them with concentrated orange cordial and using a syringe. He's tolerated them pretty well and is accepting that he has to have them. He's gone off his feed completely but is happy to eat grass and hay.
		
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It doesn't seem to mix to a form that syringes easily, & he's normally good to syringe - has to be since he has at least two lots of meds by syringe each day! Thanks for the thought though.


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## FinkleyAlex (10 April 2016)

No he didn't respond to the first set of antibiotics (unfortunately as they were hideously expensive!), he responded to the second set but that took a good seven days to truly kick in. He had it in his knee, he has old scar tissue from a previous injury/operation there so we think that was a factor. At first he really couldn't walk at all, then he'd hobble a bit, then once the second set of antibiotics kicked in he could walk but swung his leg out because of the swelling. It's been about 2 months since that happened and his knee is now a normal size (it took about 4 weeks to go down) and he's very comfortable again. If we hadn't changed his antibiotics I'd have put him to sleep as he was utterly miserable - luckily I wanted to try everything before calling it a day.


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## The Fuzzy Furry (13 September 2021)

Both posts above reported, spammer....


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## Pearlsasinger (13 September 2021)

FGS!


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## millikins (13 September 2021)

My laminitic pony was on paracetamol as well as bute. Problem I had was getting it into her as minimal feed and a pony deeply suspicious of tablets by then. I had to buy the soluble ones which was very expensive. 
Paracetamol is suitable for dogs, it causes liver damage same as in humans if dose isn't weight appropriate.


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## MinKo (13 September 2021)

hobo said:



			Never heard of that, was there a reason that you have not used bute ? I would think it is a lot easier to get bute in to a horse than 40 tablets.
		
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Paracetamol is stronger than Bute and various old horses on my yard have been given it for various issues


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## Goldenstar (13 September 2021)

Dogs can take paracetamol our vets often use it for pain relief .


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## Po Knee (13 September 2021)

millikins said:



			My laminitic pony was on paracetamol as well as bute. Problem I had was getting it into her as minimal feed and a pony deeply suspicious of tablets by then. I had to buy the soluble ones which was very expensive.
Paracetamol is suitable for dogs, it causes liver damage same as in humans if dose isn't weight appropriate.
		
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Yes this. 15 paracetemol tablets twice a day alongside the bute. I got mine from the vet in an enormous glass jar - enough to sink a battleship . I figured that whilst more expensive it was way easier than trawling around the local shops on a regular basis!


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## blitznbobs (13 September 2021)

Meowy Catkin said:



			Paracetamol is a crap painkiller. I wouldn't go through all that bother for something that is so ineffective, there must be something better that the vet can prescribe.
		
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Paracetamol is not a crap pain killer when used along side other analgesics … many studies show it can halve the amount of opiates/ opiods needed in severe pain … thats pretty good in my book

oh and iv paracetamol is as effective as 10 mg morphine in bone fractures


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## windand rain (13 September 2021)

Paracetamol is definitely not a crap painkiller it was part of four hourly painrelief for my OH when he had his knee replaced at the end of june he was walking in 4 hours and driving in 3 weeks pain only controlled by paracetamol and two hours later ibuprofen. No opiates at all


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## MinKo (13 September 2021)

My bestie is a paramedic and he has always said this is fine to do, I suffer with sinus and dental issues, whenever I'm having trouble I use paracetamol and ibuprofen in 2 hour rotations,


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## MotherOfChickens (14 September 2021)

blitznbobs said:



			oh and iv paracetamol is as effective as 10 mg morphine in bone fractures
		
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but not as fun..


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## Peglo (14 September 2021)

I’m not surprised paracetamol seemed useless against back pain. As far as I hear, even very strong painkillers don’t help with back pain. So not a very fair study IMO. I’ve used it for other injury’s/ post knee surgery and it takes the edge off for me.

I’ve been told by a friend about using paracetamol for horses. She thought it helped one of her oldies.
 Sending best wishes for a speedy and full recovery for your TB


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## ycbm (14 September 2021)

millikins said:



			My laminitic pony was on paracetamol as well as bute. Problem I had was getting it into her as minimal feed and a pony deeply suspicious of tablets by then. I had to buy the soluble ones which was very expensive.
		
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I've used a pestle and mortat in the past, a hammer and a strong bag will work too.  I think paracetamol will turn to a soggy paste if they are soaked overnight, I'm not sure what that would do to their effectiveness.  None of those ideas would be good for any enteric coated tablet,  like omeprazole, that needs to get through the stomach before coming into action.  
.


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## abbijay (14 September 2021)

My horse had paracetamol in horsepital years back when he had an undiagnosed infected pastern joint and was in acute pain despite high doses of bute. Since then my horse had an episode of Right dorsal colitis  (basically this is an allergic reaction to bute for those that haven't experienced it/heard of it). He will NEVER have bute again. I have had a chat with my friendly vet and she's suggested, should he show pain again, we use paracetamol to manage this. I have a stack of about 100 tablets in should I ever need it.


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