re the recent LSU study, a good comment about bute in the BYRH Forum.
I believe that it does more harm than good. Inflammation can be
really important to ours and our horses' health. Low level inflammation in
the healing process is also very important and should not be feared. Plus
the masking potential of this type of medication can really be dangerous.
I was like all of the other trainers before my thought renaissance on
health thinking: "WHY NOT USE BUTE?" Everyone else is doing it and it could give my horse an edge. Maybe? I did not take the time to consider that
inflammation is an important healing modality in the natural health of all
of us and when it is circumvented, bad things happen. It should never be
interfered with. I did back then appreciate how bute could mask symptoms,
but I brushed this off as well by saying bute is not that powerful of an
anti-inflammatory and that truly sore horses would even show through a bute application. I was deluding myself. I now know better.
What Doug mentions is pretty much consistent with what we've found and what Mom has to say about bute in the book.
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55 minutes ago
That was a great article. I've quoted from it in comments on other blogs. It is SO important that people recognize the problems of over-medication. I had to give a horse that injured himself in the starting gate bute for two days and was worried about it. He'll now be positive for three weeks and won't race, which is fine; he shouldn't anyway. But in America, he could go right back out. Can't people see the obvious?
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