Adverse Drug Reactions in Horses

Knowledge of newly identified and well established adverse drug reactions (ADR) in horses will limit the amount of iatrogenic medical interventions, and will hasten recovery of equine patients from a given disease. ADRs can occur at any given time and under a great variety of clinical settings. However, if clinicians reinforce their continuous education on this subject, and become aware of the underlying mechanisms that induce ADRs they can both administer drugs with a greater margin of safety and certainly, predict the likelyhood of the presentation of ADRs. In turn, clinicians will be capable of suggesting the use of an alternative drug. The aim of this review is to bring up-to-date the reported knowledge on ADRs in horses, identifying the modus operandi, the incidence, the possible extension of the organic damage and when possible, the adequate treatment. It is our hope that busy equine practitioners and their patients will benefit from this retrospective analysis of ADRs in horses. This review also attempts to encourage practitioners to report new ADRs that will enrich the knowledge of pharmacological peculiarities of drugs used in equine practice.