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Originally Posted by Riot
But it is. What makes you think it is not? We have thousands of necropies on horses that shows the damage. We have three centuries of horsemen writing about horses that bleed and don't have wind and quit and can't work.
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I never said there wasn't damage. I just said this damage doesn't seem to effect the vast majority of racehorses. I've seen horses (like Lost Code for instance) have terrible instances of bleeding, add Lasix, and turn out to be great race horses. Just how much did that damage hurt him and others like him?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Riot
What are you specifically talking about? Horses that raced before lasix? A century ago? Two centuries ago? Other methods were used to control bleeding before lasix. Many things were tried.
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Yes, but obviously plenty of horses in those days were bleeding and nobody even knew it. Despite that, the horses could run much more often than today and recover a lot faster.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Riot
The hard science is that furosemide has about a 97% effective rate with horses that have been diagnosed with EIPH.
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That seems a little high to me. Is that being measured with the same tools used to diagnose EIPH in the first place? I find that very hard to believe.
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Originally Posted by Riot
Current science: Virtually all TB racehorses have been found to have evidence of bleeding, thus we consider that rate of EIPH to be 100% in the TB race horse for practical purposes.
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I guess it depends how hard you want to find something. I probably bleed in my lungs every time I jog too, and my knees swell and my feet hurt. But I'm not injecting myself (or taking anything else) to stop it.
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Originally Posted by Riot
What negative affects concern you?
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The effect of racing while somewhat dehydrated. I can think of no athletic activity where that is a good thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Riot
There is zero scientific evidence that using furosemide shortens a horses career. There is hard proven scientific evidence that says use in race horses lengthens that career by diminishing lung damage.
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How would you possibly have any evidence when virtually all horses race with the stuff anyway? Before Lasix was legal, horses lasted longer and raced more often. It certainly isn't the only reason, but it could be one of them.