LOCALIZED PAIN
It took a few days to isolate the source of Georgie’s discomfort. The reining horse had been found standing stock-still in his pasture, head low and refusing to move. After ruling out laminitis0, tying0 up and similarly scary diagnoses, his veterinarian traced the source of the pain to a cracked vertebral process halfway up the neck, likely damaged as he roughhoused with pasturemates. Radiographs showed that the bone was stable enough to heal on its own if Georgie’s movement was limited. We wanted to give him an anti-inflammatory but we faced a big problem. He refuses to eat medications in his feed, hates injections and likes to rear when you give him paste---not good for a neck injury! One specific NSAID could help minimize his discomfort.
If you know the exact anatomical location of a horse’s musculoskeletal pain, a good choice may be diclofenac, which is a topical NSAID sold as Surpass. This medication is a cream that is rubbed directly onto the treat- ment area. With this type of administration, the level of the medication in the bloodstream is low, which reduces the risk of adverse side effects. Of course, for all-over soreness or a systemic problem, diclofenac isn’t an option, but if you’ve pinpointed a specific location of trouble, it can be a great help.
Diclofenac can be used on any part of the body and is commonly used to treat arthritic joints. I’ve found that it works particularly well on neck pain, although I’m not exactly sure why. Perhaps it’s easy for owners to visualize where the cream needs to go, although I’ll still clip the target area as a guide and to facilitate penetration of the cream through the skin. The typical dose is a three-inch strip applied twice a day, although if the area is clipped closely, some owners can apply a bit less and still get the desired results (after talking to their veterinarian).
While the risk of side effects is markedly lower with diclofenac than it would be with a drug delivered systemically, some of the medication can still enter a horse’s bloodstream, so I urge owners to watch for signs of possible sensitivity or NSAID toxicity while using diclofenac. It isn’t likely to happen, but that doesn’t mean it can’t.