GI Drug Could be Useful for Equine Eye Exams (AAEP 2012)

N-butylscopolammonium bromide could be useful for helping veterinarians examine horses’ eyes.
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Occasionally veterinarians stumble across a drug side effect that’s more useful than detrimental. Take, for example, the antispasmodic N-butylscopolammonium bromide (NBB), marketed in the United States as Buscopan (Boehringer Ingelheim) to treat horses with colic. As it turns out, this drug could be useful for helping veterinarians examine horses’ eyes.

"One side effect of NBB is mydriasis–dilation of the pupil of the eye," explained Joanie Palmero, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, formerly of the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. She and UC Davis colleagues examined NBB’s potential for ocular exam use, and she presented their research results at the 2012 American Association of Equine Practitioners’ Convention, held Dec. 1-5 in Anaheim, Calif.

Currently, topical tropicamide remains the gold standard for routine ocular exams. But the research team believed NBB could represent an additional option for transient mydriasis in some horses.

To determine its suitability for this use, the research team administered the following four treatments (interspersed by a two-week washout period) to six healthy adult horses: topical tropicamide (positive control, as it’s normally administered), topical NBB, intravenous NBB (the administration route used to treat colic), and topical or intravenous saline (negative controls)

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Written by:

Stacey Oke, MSc, DVM, is a practicing veterinarian and freelance medical writer and editor. She is interested in both large and small animals, as well as complementary and alternative medicine. Since 2005, she’s worked as a research consultant for nutritional supplement companies, assisted physicians and veterinarians in publishing research articles and textbooks, and written for a number of educational magazines and websites.

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