WSU Warns Horse Owners About Dangers Behind Painkillers

According to a Recent Survey, many horse owners purchase painkilling and potentially dangerous drugs without first having a veterinarian examine their horse. That survey found that roughly 27% bought painkillers from noncompliant sources, that would fall outside the veterinarian-clients-patient relationship, while 20% acquired the drugs from a feed store, nearly 13% had purchased them on-line and 5% received painkillers from vets who had never examined their animal.

Washington State University’s Dr. Debra Sellon says most horse owners use these drugs safely. But the concern comes when horse owners don’t recognize the dangers these drugs pose not only to the horse if use incorrectly, but also to humans.

“Xylazine and detomidine, or dormosedan, they are very commonly used with horses, and often horse owners feel very comfortable with them, but it takes very little of that to be accidentally injected into a person to cause significant harm.”

Sellon added the concerns for horse owners should not end there.

“Xylazine has been around for a long time, it’s been around the whole time I’ve been a veterinarian, and I’ve used tons of it in horses.  It has recently started being used to mix with fentanyl by drug abusers.  So, having it around and then knowing that horse owners have it puts them at risk to be targeted to obtain drugs like Xylazine for illicit use.”

Sellon notes she she’s not saying horse owners should not have these drugs, but if you have them, understand the risk, store them properly, and look at locking them up.

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Listen to our unedited interview to learn more:

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