Drug and Medication regulations - Equestrian Canada

Finally! Warm weather, blue skies, green grass. Show season is here . Along with planning what classes to enter, who will trailer your horse, and what grooming supplies to pick up, horse owners, trainers, and riders also need to carefully plan their horse’s health needs over the season. The drugs that we commonly use in our horses may have effects on horse performance in the ring, and more importantly, have effects on a possible drug test at a show. Certain overseeing organizations control the use of drugs in athletes (human and horse) at events to help ensure fairness in sport and to preserve animal welfare. Although most teams behind an athlete don’t intentionally cheat, there are common drugs used that may be restricted in an athlete making it possible to accidentally violate these rules. It is very important not to take these rules lightly, as violations can result in disqualification, fines, suspensions, and the loss of your hard-earned awards and season points.

Equestrian Canada is the national governing body for the equestrian sport and industry in Canada, with a mandate to represent, promote and advance all equine and equestrian interests.

When you enter an EC sanctioned show, you must follow their guidelines and rules, however  rules of certain divisions/breed sports are more restrictive and in some cases allow no drugs or medications.
This is especially important when competing at FEI level or in Europe, where basically a “zero tolerance – zero drug” policy is in place and enforced.

Here IS a summary of EC rules regarding drugs:
• Only permitted medications (listed in the chart below) are allowed to be present in a horse during an EC sanctioned event
• Some permitted non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can only be present under certain plasma/serum levels at the time of competition
• Only ONE NSAID of those permitted can be present in a horse at the time of competition
• Shockwave cannot be administered on a horse within 96 hours of competing
• Intrasynovial injections (joint, tendon sheath or bursal) are prohibited within 96 hours of competition.
• Drugs may be therapeutically administered to a horse at the competition for the reason of acute injury or illness, and are to be administered by a licensed veterinarian. An Emergency Medication Report is to be filled out in this instance. These horses are not permitted to compete FOR MINIMUM 24 HOURS after being treated.
• Possession or administration ( or allowing to administer) of any of the following drugs: injectable magnesium, gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) or hydroxygamma butyric acid (HydroxyGABA) at an EC-sanctioned competition;



So what does this mean for you and your four-legged teammate? You horse’s body must be completely free of all drugs, other than the permitted drugs, at the time of competition. That means you have to carefully plan your horse's regular treatments according to your show schedule. All drugs administered to any animal have a specific DETECTION TIME and  a WITHDRAWL TIME


The detection time is the time a substance can be detected in either blood or urine after administration. It varies from horse to horse, it also depends on the laboratory and it depends if there is an interaction with other drugs or supplements given at the same time.


The withdrawl time is defined by EC as:  the period of time that a competitor should allow between the time the drug was last administered and the time the horse can compete with minimal likelihood of incurring a medication violation.

If you read the fineprint: It says SHOULD allow!
In the next sentence it says:
“ However, it is advised that this time period should be longer than what is considered the typical elimination guideline in order to have a safety margin.”


We are always asked about how much of a certain drug can be given before a show.  The accurate answer should be “ I don’t know” ….but of course that is not what I say.
I have no idea how long the actual DETECTION time is for a specific horse and drug at a specific time, because as a living organism, there is a huge individual variation depending on the horses metabolism and other factors like hydration status, body temperature, exercise levels, other drug and supplement interaction we might not even be aware of !

The good news is, we have a pretty good idea about it, thanks to published data and drug elimination studies. But these are guidelines only, in order to be safe it is advisable to add some additional time to it.


The following chart outlines all the permitted drugs, permitted plasma/serum levels, and a general pre-event administration plan.
The plasma levels are useless as a guideline, how can I now your horses plasma levels??

Fortunately EC dose the math for us

Permitted Drug Common Name Indication
/Application Maximum Serum Level Pre-event administration/ 1000 lb/454 kg  
Flunixin Meglumine Banamine NSAID 1.0 microgram/mL   500mg/24
Ketoprofen Ketofen, Anafen?? NSAID 0.25 microgram/mL     900mg/24
Phenylbutazone “Bute” NSAID 15.0 microgram/mL 24h – 2g max
preferably less/24h
Acetylsalicylic acid ??? NSAID
Firocoxib Previcox NSAID 240 nanograms/mL 57mg/24h
Pergolide Prascend Cushing’s treatment
Altrenogest (only in mare) Regu-mate Estrus Suppression
cimetidine Tagamet Ulcer treatment
ranitidine Zantac Ulcer treatment
omperazole Gastrograd Ulcer treatment

Another very important point to consider when assessing what drugs your horse is receiving is to also consider all “supplements”, “herbal products”, “tonics”, “nutraceuticals”, etc. Because many of these substances do not include quantitative analysis of their ingredients, restricted drugs for competition may be present, which puts you at risk for violating the EC rules. It is strongly cautioned against using these types of “supplements” or “natural treatments” in a competing horse for these reasons.

Now, if you are thinking, “Well we never place high and probably won’t be chosed to be tested for drugs” you should be aware that anyone can be tested at anytime at the competition. Horses can be randomly or specifically targeted for drug testing before and after the competition. Horses can also be chosen for drug testing if they have withdrawn from the show within 24 hours prior to the competition. It’s better to be safe than very sorry!
What happens during these drug tests? The “person responsible”, (defined as: “an adult who has, or shares responsibility for the care, training, custody, and performance of the horse and who has official responsibility for that horse under EC Rules” as per EC glossary of terms) will be notified by the technician or licensed veterinarian at the competition. The person responsible (or an appointed representative) will accompany the horse to a testing stall and witness the sample collection done by the technician or veterinarian.  The person responsible must sign all documentation provided for the drug test. The sample is sent to and processed at an approved test facility. Sample collection and testing is done in a systematic and highly regulated manner to ensure in fair testing. If anyone tampers with the process of drug testing, including the competition facility and appointed veterinary team, they will suffer the consequences of the specific violation.

Now this all may sound a little overwhelming and intimidating, but as long as you take responsibility of your horse and play by the rules, you shouldn’t have any problems through your show season. The best course of action is to consult with your veterinarian about your individual horse, their regular medical needs, and your show schedule. Be aware of all the governing organizations that sanction the shows you are competing in, and make sure that everyone is familiar with the rules of the competition and sanctioning organizations. Full rulebooks and guidelines can be found and downloaded from any of the organizations’ websites for free. If all else fails, just ask for help from people who are in charge to ensure that you fully understand what is required of you, your team, and your athletes. Even if you are competing in smaller scale horse shows, such as schooling shows and fairs that are not overseen by an organization, it is still a good idea to use these rules as guidelines to preserve the ethics and fairness of your sport. After all, these rules were put in place to make sure that horses are sound and healthy enough to compete and to deter any cheating. So enjoy your hard earned show season by freeing yourself of the confusion and worries of drug discrepancies and violations.



https://www.equestrian.ca/cdn/storage/resources_v2/ax5Db4765zHEzywYo/original/ax5Db4765zHEzywYo.pdf


https://www.equestrian.ca/programs-services/equine-medications

http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/about-us/partners-and-agencies/canadian-pari-mutuel-agency/canadian-pari-mutuel-agency-equine-drug-control-program/elimination-guidelines-2016-1-of-5/?id=1454071417865

PARASITE WARS – THE WORMS STRIKE BACK ….

Once upon a time all we had to do is buy a dewormer at our local tack shop, feed it to our horse, repeat that 4x times a year and our parasite problem was solved – or so we thought.

The sequel to the story goes to the parasite: The Ontario Veterinary College has seen an increase of parasite related colics and colic surgeries in the last few years and the live threatening disease “Cyanosthomiasis” comes into any equine vets mind when presented with a young horse with fulminant severe diarrhea.

What is going on?

Long story short - decades of routine use of “anthelmintic” drugs have left us with drug resistant parasites, similar to the antibiotic resistance problem we have with bacterial infections.

The good news is:

We might have lost a battle, but not the war – yet.

During my career as an equine veterinarian deworming protocols and recommendations have changed several times. From annual rotations with different dewormers in the same year to rotating on a yearly basis – and back.

In the good old times things were easy, if a client asked me what to use, I would ask what did you use last time and depending on the season and my mood I would suggest a product. Nowadays the conversation goes like this:

Client: What dewormer should I use this year?

Me: I have no idea…

Client: what do you mean?

Me: I don’t know if your horse has worms, or not; I don’t know if the previous dewormings you did where effective, or not; I don’t know if you have a shedder in your herd that keeps contaminating your pastures, or not…

I am not good at role play so I have to stop it here!

These are the Facts:

• 20% of all horses carry 80% of the worm-burden
• Foals have roundworms
• The young horse (under 2) has the highest risk
• Old horses – might look shiny, but can still be high shedders
• Pasture rotation and hygiene is VERY important.

  

The most important offenders are:

1)  Parascaris equorum – the roundworm: This is mainly a foal parasite, and the growing horse develops normally a strong immunity once older than a year.

The eggs have a thick protective shell and can survive for many years. The foals  of the previous year “infect” the new ones. Transmission via the milk of the mare can also occur.

Foals should be dewormed with an appropriate dewormer starting at the 6 to 8 weeks of age, and then every 2 months. Ivermectin or Moxidectin might not be the perfect drug for foals. Benzimidzole class dewormers seem to be the best choice in the moment.

2)  Strongylus vulgaris, the large strongyle or ‘bloodworm” was for centuries the number one parasite of the horse. Their migration in the blood supply of the intestine could cause dramatic “embolic-thrombotic colic. They can be effectively controlled by most available dewormers and are the big losers in our drug war, BUT this parasite took over:

3)  Cyanosthomins - Small Strongyles :  The larval stage of  this parasite encysts in the intestinal wall during its live cycle and the synchronized hatching of  the larvae ,or the rapid death due to deworming can lead to life threatening diarrhea caused by the damage to  the intestinal lining.

4)  Tapeworms are different. The horse tape-worm needs an intermediate host like a grass mite in order to complete its life cycle, the whole process takes about 6 months. They have been identified as one of the risk factors for colic. Most of the time their eggs do not show up on fecal testing. Thanks to their long life cycle one or two treatments per year are enough. However only a drug called “Praziquantel “is effect at normal dosages, the only other drug that is been used to treat and prevent is “Pyrantel” in a double dose regimen.

5)  Pinworms can be bothersome parasites, but actually cause very little damage. Adults crawl out of the horse's rectum to lay their eggs, which then can cause intense itching. This can certainly be a pain in your horses’ butt.

We have learned – 20% of horses shedding 80% of the parasite eggs. All we need to do is to identify these animals. Fecal egg counts (FEC’s) are our most valuable tool nowadays. The better we know the status of the herd, the more strategic can we treat the horses that need to be treated. We also will have to accept the fact that we cannot get them all, and that is OK!

There are pitfalls to the testing protocol. While it gives important information about the situation in the herd, the individual horse might not shed eggs when we pick our sample and sometimes the undetectable larval stadium is more dangerous than the adult worm.

Therefore: If I have a horse that looks like it suffers from internal parasites, I treat first and ask questions later, same with foals, they need to be dewormed regularly and the testing is only in order to monitor how successful we are – or not…

Also, every horse should have at minimum an appropriate dewormer in fall to keep botflies, strongyles and tapes under control.

                                                               TALK TO YOUR VETERINARIAN ABOUT IT……