Lasix

Question I have:

Is Lasix used extensively on horses that have not bled or have bled what might be considered insignficant amounts ? (I guess insignificant would mean no breathing problems or infections likely, etc... because the amount of bleeding is so small).

Once a horse bleeds, its Lasix for life, if the trainer so chooses?
I also know that in Texas anyway, a horse can get on lasix if bleeding occurs
during a workout which makes sense. But the vets have to have a look.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by pgardn

Question I have:

Is Lasix used extensively on horses that have not bled or have bled what might be considered insignficant amounts ? (I guess insignificant would mean no breathing problems or infections likely, etc... because the amount of bleeding is so small).

Once a horse bleeds, its Lasix for life, if the trainer so chooses?

If a horse shows a propensity to bleed even a small amount they have a greater chance of bleeding signifigntly in the future. Since very few horses come with crystal balls to tell us if today is the day that we bleed badly it is used as a preventative measure in many cases.

[GBBob]

Originally Posted by Merlinsky

There's a shock, vets are pro-medication. Gee they're not remotely benefiting financially from the Lasix,etc. that they put in the horses. The AVMA is also pro-slaughter. They might call what they're peddling here pro-horse. I don't believe that's the case myself. Even if you think the horses shouldn't be neglected and are convinced that that'll happen, you can be pro-euthanasia. I don't see them out there pushing people with lousy colts to geld them. The more horses with Lasix that run and go on to breed, the worse the bleeding situation gets in future generations. It should be a negative when you go to a stallion that he was a known bleeder. Not unlike a really weak hind end or pencil thin pasterns. Not 'oh nevermind, he'll just take Lasix.' It's a defect plain and simple. The heart-lung mechanism is one of if not the most important things on a horse. As wonderfully conformed as Secretariat was, he did what he did thanks to heart-lung efficiency. Need to see that in action? Watch the gusts in the Canadian International. As for the masking of other drugs, yeah I guess the World Anti-Doping Agency has it on the banned list because it masks other drugs based on no evidence whatsoever.

So...are you proposing that if you bleed, you can't run? Or should they run despite it? Or are all bleeders just a fallacy to get lasix...or...well...what are you saying should be done if they bleed..assuming you believe they bleed in the first place.

Originally Posted by Merlinsky

The heart-lung mechanism is one of if not the most important things on a horse.

Wild horses were never meant to run like T-breds do. Tens of thousands of years of evolution cannot be undone in a heartbeat.

The game involves horses running at very high speeds in some cases up to 2 minutes straight.
If you got all those guts coming forward on a diaphragm that is right on those huge lungs that contains massive numbers of very tiny capillaries, guts slamming into them from behind for two minutes (each time a horses front hooves hit the ground), I find it hard to believe that capillaries will not break.

I really dont know how easily this can be bred out. I dont think anyone does. If you find a horse that never bleeds and mate this to a horse that never bleeds, we cannot assume the offspring will be the same. There might be a myriad of reasons some horses might not bleed. One major reason could be because they are slow. I know the horses that run the really long course races do not bleed nearly as often if at all... horses basically gallop these courses.

We want fast horses over short distances (1 1/4 being short). Lots of inertia involved in that type of running. So lots of damage.

The horse was never meant to do what is asked of these animals, they just were not meant for this. We bred them to run, and run hard. So all sorts of consequences follow. I dont like this, but have accepted this. And I surely dont want horses being pushed on with lungs full of blood, or having to face the consequences of massive septic infection due to all the crap that might enter bleeding capillaries or grow in blood within lungs.