The safest course

It might be tempting to self-medicate a horse, but the first step should always be to speak to your vet. Liz Richardson MRCVS explains

- Liz Richardson

SELF-MEDICATION is the use of medicinal products by a patient to treat self recognised or self-diagnosed conditions or symptoms. We can also regard self-medication as administering medicinal products to horses by people who are caring for them.

It can be hard to know whether a horse’s health problem requires a vet’s attention or whether it can be handled without. We all know that veterinary care can be a timely, costly inconvenience and sometimes difficult to procure after regular business hours or in remote locations.

With a supply of unused medications previously prescribed by a vet, it is understandable why it can be tempting to self-medicate your horse without veterinary input.

The safest course for everyone involved (horse, owner and vet) is early communication about the problem with a vet. Whether that communication results in an appointment will depend on the severity and type of the problem involved. If a problem can be accurately diagnosed at the outset, an appropriate treatment plan may yield a better prognosis at a lower cost.

The horse will most likely have the best chance for a rapid and complete recovery when a vet is advised of the problem from the start.

There may be circumstances in which prompt access to medication is essential to provide rapid relief to a horse to avoid stress and pain because of delayed intervention.

This is the only argument in favour of self-medication: when delays in access to the medication could endanger the patient or jeopardise the efficacy of the treatment.

However, self-medication carries significant risk and a vet should be consulted.