A Shot in the Dark

Author’s note: This article is intended to improve your understanding of drugs commonly used in equine veterinary care; it is not a “treatment guide” for the lay person. No medication or combination thereof should be given without veterinary consultation. Medications given in the wrong circumstance, via the wrong route, and/or in the wrong combination can hurt or kill. The administration o

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Author’s note: This article is intended to improve your understanding of drugs commonly used in equine veterinary care; it is not a “treatment guide” for the lay person. No medication or combination thereof should be given without veterinary consultation. Medications given in the wrong circumstance, via the wrong route, and/or in the wrong combination can hurt or kill. The administration of any medication to your horse should be taken very seriously.


All drugs can be toxic if used incorrectly. There are drugs that can be toxic at regular therapeutic doses if certain predisposing factors exist, and it is necessary to know what side effects can occur if there is an adverse reaction. This includes vaccines. Many people perform their own vaccinations to cut down on expenses; if you are going to take on this responsibility, you must also take on the responsibility of learning about what can happen if something goes wrong. It might only be 1 in 100,000 or so horses which have an anaphylactic reaction to a vaccination, but one thing is for certain–if your horse does have one and you don’t know what to do, he will most likely die. If you are doing your own vaccinating and deworming, discuss this with your veterinarian and be prepared to recognize and deal with any complications that might occur

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Written by:

Michael A. Ball, DVM, completed an internship in medicine and surgery and an internship in anesthesia at the University of Georgia in 1994, a residency in internal medicine, and graduate work in pharmacology at Cornell University in 1997, and was on staff at Cornell before starting Early Winter Equine Medicine & Surgery located in Ithaca, New York. He was an FEI veterinarian and worked internationally with the United States Equestrian Team. He died in 2014.

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