Stupid polo team can’t legally bring allegedly safe supplement into the US.
See, the stuff is not approved for use by the USFDA.
Said stupid, fucking polo team has a compounded version allegedly safe supplement compounded by a US pharmacy.
Said pharmacy gets it wrong:
The treated horses die.
If the stuff is safe, why hasn’t the FDA approved it? Is it not safe? Has the FDA not evaluated it yet? Have the makers applied for approval?
If the “strengths of an ingredient” were that incorrect, wouldn’t QA/QC protocols detect that?
The stuff is meant for “exhausted horses” - the horses are generally exhausted for good reason - let the fuckers rest, hydrate them. They’re not machines, dammit.
If the team was cheating by using an unapproved supplement, fuck them too.
Fuckity fucking dead horses fucking fucked-up compounded meds fucking sleazy cheating team.
I don’t know why a compound of vitamins and minerals wouldn’t be approved, but that is apparently want it is. Not steroids or the like. I’d hardly call making sure your horses get vitamins and minerals so they can perform at peak “cheating”. That’d be like calling track stars cheaters for drinking Gatorade, or Quick Kick back in the day. :dubious: You lose a lot of minerals via sweating, you know?
This is what I meant by Quickick. Apparently they said teams cannot use it for Cross Country now (in Kansas at least, last I’d heard) because not every team could afford it. Coach bought it for us out of his own pocket.
Well, the ingredients in this compound apparently killed a lot of horses …
The article does not indicate the drug, or supplement, was refused FDA approval. It’s possible that approval has never been sought; drug manufacturing regulations are still not fully harmonized. The demand may not be great enough for the drug company to go to the expense of seeking FDA approval.
My equine biology is a bit shaky [read: non-existent], but:
B vitamin are water soluble and easily filtered and excreted; it would probably take a compound error of using the vitamin as the filler … a very expensive mistake
Sodium, potassium, and calcium are the minerals very important in the function of muscle, such as the heart; the relative levels of each are very important; screwing that up could cause a heart attack, particularly in a stressed animal
The FDA may not care about compounding pharmacies, but the USP does.
People dealing with drugs generally use metric units, so this shouldn’t be a metric v. ‘English’ units issue.
If I find any more specific chemical details, I’ll post.
I was a little surprised by this selenium-containing concoction, although I shouldn’t be surprised by the snake-oil/placebo “remedies” used by the old-timers in equestrian sports.
I am not a vet.
Selenium is an essential micronutrient; deficiency can occur in regions of the U.S. where the soil, and thus grasses and hays, are lacking, and can cause neuromuscular problems. However, there is a pretty narrow range for the desired levels, and it is easy to overdo supplementation and cause toxicity, even using oral supplements. It is not uncommon to do blood tests if you think a horse is showing signs of deficiency, since too much is as bad as too little. Also, it is available as an oral supplement, so I’m not sure why they felt the need to inject it.
OK, B12 I’ve heard of, but likely unnecessary.
Potassium and magnesium? Maybe it’s just me, but I just don’t see the logic of randomly giving horses certain electrolytes, but not others (sodium, chloride, calcium?), once a week. The body is pretty good at regulating these things, as long as you give them access to a mineral block and clean water. Giving electrolytes once a week seems like it would hardly do any good, as the kidneys excrete excess potassium, etc. If they really think that the polo ponies were getting so dehydrated they couldn’t maintain electrolyte status with a handful of a commercial oral supplement in their feed, why not give a balanced electrolyte solution, such as Lactated Ringer’s, IV on nights the horses were really beat?
Giving potassium IV is not something to be taken lightly – pushing it too fast can cause heart arrhythmias and other problems.
Unfortunately, a lot of practices in the horse world seem to be based more on superstition and placebo effect than modern, evidence-backed medicine.
Now this part of your rant is pretty silly. There are dozens of medicines, both human & equine, that are a safe, effective medicine at one concentration and deadly at another concentration.
My mother was made very sick by a doctor prescribing insulin pills at 5 when she should have said 0.5 concentration. 2-4 aspirin is a normal dose for a headache, but 40 aspirin will probably kill you. People get sick, even die, from overdoses of sleeping pills.
<nitpick> I think that you meant to say oral antidiabetic pills. Insulin cannot be taken in pills, it must be injected or inhaled. Insulin given by mouth will be broken down in the digestive system, doing the patient no good at all. Right now, the only option for US diabetics who need insulin is to inject it, as the inhaled version was only available for a matter of months. Believe me, if I didn’t HAVE to inject myself to get my insulin, I wouldn’t.</nitpick>
I’m sorry that your mother was misprescribed, having low blood sugar is dangerous and no fun at all.
Biodyl has never sought approval, which is why it is not approved. If I had to guess why they haven’t ought approval, its because there are many similar products available in the U.S. market. Potassium, Magnesium, and b-12 are a combination very associated with “calming” supplements because deficiencies in these nutrients affect the nervous system in a way that makes the horse reactive to stimuli. (note that if your horse does not have a deficiency, the supplement does nothing).
Speaking as a equine veterinarian here: The final answer will no doubt come out before long. By reading the ingredients in the compounded supplement that have been published, I’d say it was the Selenium that killed them.
Selenium has what is called a narrow therapeutic window - which means there isn’t a lot of difference between a necessary amount and a toxic amount. None of the other ingredients (at least those listed) do. A big overdose of selenium would be very bad news
FWIW - I just took care of a 5# goat kid who received enough selenium to treat a #150 calf. It died too.
The fall out from this will be between whether the compounding pharmacy mixed it up wrong, or whether the prescribing veterinarian miscalculated the dose. The veterinarian is out in the wilderness on his or her own if a law suit is the result. If something is given that isn’t labeled for that use or is compounded, it’s all on the vet. if things go wrong. There’s nobody at the pharmacy who is gong to call ahd say, “hey, this dose looks a little high to me.” Hopefully this will have a chilling effect on the use of compounded substances by veterinarians - something they do all the time.
The real shame of all of this is that this vitamin supplement was not really needed by these horses. Any more than somebody NEEDS to take a One-A-Day before running a marathon. I’m sure the trainers are completely married to the idea that their horses are highly-tuned athletes that need every bit of supplement crap somebody is willing to sell them, but horses can do just fine without this stuff if they are fed a good quality diet.
Don’t know if this is a hijack (of course it could be), but does anyone remember the Dick Francis novel where selenium was used to cause birth defects in horses? I’d always read that Francis and his son did very good research for the novels, and Francis is one of the great English jockeys.
Depending on what’s in the soil (if grazing)/what the horse eats, it is possible for a horse to be deficient in selenium and require supplementation. Foals do need some selenium to develop properly in utero, but it is a heavy metal and I don’t know that horses are really different than people in terms of the danger to fetus from high levels of heavy metal (vets, please correct me, if nec’y)
It is also possible for a horse to get selenium poisoning from chronic exposure causing all sorts of nasty effects (for example, the hoof falling off the foot, ugh!).
Yes, it was called “Banker.” However, the book was a trifle speculative; while known to cause birth defects in birds, selenium has not been shown to cause birth defects in humans or in other mammals. Very high amounts of selenium have caused decreased sperm counts, increased abnormal sperm, changes in the female reproductive cycle in rats, and changes in the menstrual cycle in monkeys. The relevance of the reproductive effects of selenium exposure in animals studied to potential reproductive effects in humans is not known.
(Information from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Department of Health and Human Services)