Study examines effects of higher NSAIDs dosages
A study carried out by researchers in America has examined whether higher-than-standard doses of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) alleviate foot pain more efficiently.
To test this hypothesis, Jonathan Foreman DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM and his colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign used a reversible heart bar shoe to allow sound horses to become temporarily lame. The pain subsides completely when researchers loosen the screw in the shoe to relieve foot pressure.
When the researchers tighten the screw in the shoe the pain level increases, as reflected by increasing heart rates. Following the regional anaesthesia application, the horses' heart rates dropped from 60 to 40 beats per minute (bpm).
In this study the scientists compared the effects of varying intravenous doses (half-dose, 1x, 2x) of flunixin meglumine; they used saline as a control. Ten sound horses wore a reversible heart bar shoe on the front left foot. Following treatment, the 1x and 2x doses improved heart rates for the 12-hour duration, whereas heart rates remained elevated in the control horses.
Heart rates in the horses given half-doses of flunixin did not decrease as much as those in the 1x and 2x horses, and they didn't remain low for as long. "They responded intermittently and not as obviously," Foreman commented. There was no difference in heart rate results between the horses receiving 1x or 2x flunixin meglumine.
Foreman concluded that the double dose was no more effective than the single dose and presented a higher risk of toxicity. The half-dose was less effective than the single dose; therefore, you can't rely on an anti-endotoxic half-dose to provide complete pain control for horses with painful hoof conditions such as laminitis.
Foreman summed the study up by saying: "More is not better and less is less effective."
The BSAVA has opened submissions for the BSAVA Clinical Research Abstracts 2026.
