Side effects of common equine drugs and their administration?

Question

Without referring to the net or books (no cheating now) what are possible side effects of the following?

Corticosteroids
Steroid injections into joint bursa
Bute (oral or injected)
Penicillin
All antibiotics
Antihistamine
Aspirin

What will happen if you -
Inject intramuscular penicillin or vaccine into a blood vessel?
Inject into major nerve branches in the jugular groove?
Inject a drug into an artery?
Push the needle through the vein and inject IV drugs into the surrounding tissue?

What can happen when you give an IM injection into the gluteals?

How do you tell if you've inserted a needle into a vein or an artery?

What drugs most commonly cause vein irritation (thrombophlebitis)?

What happens if drugs or fluids administered via stomach tube go into the trachea?

What happens if a drug meant to be injected slowly is administered as a bolus (quickly)?

Way to go MR and KB. Am impressed. Answers tomorrow.

My answers -
1. Laminitis, poor tissue healing, hormonal imbalances
2. Irreversible degeneration of joint cartilage, introduction of bacteria
3. Mouth & gastric ulcers, renal capillary necrosis (dehydrated horses or those with kidney damage), anaphylactic shock esp. in stressed horses, blood and bone marrow abnormalities
4. Anaphylaxis
5. Kill good gut bacteria, cause digestive disorders
6. Stomach irritation and bleeding
7. Lowers blood pressure
8. Anaphylaxis
9. Nerve damage, inability to stretch neck, infection
10. Abscess, cellulitis, invasion of clostridial spores (present on the horses skin) which can cause fatal infection or fibrotic myopathy
11. Artery will spurt; blood is bright red
12. The drug goes to the brain, the horse convulses and dies.
13. Serious skin irritation, abscessing & possibly irritation of the vein
14. Bute, tetraccyline & general anesthetics
15. Ranges from being less effective through to anaphylaxis - depending on the drug

Answer 1

I will go with the most dramtatic answers I can think of -

Corticosteroids - founder, single dose can do it.
Steroid injections into joint - I think the worst part of that is that in the long run you are doing more damage than good. They slow healing and will cause crystalization on the tissues and worsen the break down of soft tissues in the joint space.
Bute - you covered this in another question, horses with pre-existing kidney problems can have potentially fatal reactions.
Penicillin - death if allergic or given wrong.
Antibiotics - can kill off good bacteria in gut and cause diarrhea that is so bad you can't fix it.
Antihistamine - colic
Aspirin - gastric bleeding

PPG in the vein - A quick and horrible death.
Nerve braches around the jugular grove - choke, or even closing of the airway
Inject into the artery - depends on the drug, but it can cause serious side effects with the brain. A similar effect can happen if you continue to hold off the vein when injecting into the jugular.
Push the needle through the vein - some meds will cause a severe burning effect to the surrounding tissues. they can also cause abcesses to form.

Gluteal injection - I'm not sure what you are getting at with that one.

Vein or artery? Color of the blood and the pulsing of the blood indicates arterial.

Thrombophlebitis - pain meds and muscle relaxants usually cause the worst irritation in my opinion.

Stomach tube and trachea - you could end up with a nasty case of pneumonia.

Slow vs bolus. IM you can cause an abcess, IV you can risk severe thrombophlebitis or death depending on the drug.

I hope my college education was worth it. Nice question.

Answer 2

i don't know, i usually leave all this to a licensed vet, that's what they are for and why i have to pay big bucks. I do know that certian tranquizers like Ace that is meant for a vein when put in an artery can cause HUGE reactions. When we bought a mare a few years ago they had a note in her chart from where she'd droped and had a few seziures from Ace in an artery. My vet never uses ace anymore anyway usally just uses ruphyol. (however u spell it). My smaller large pony horses seem to reseverse better from it than from ace anyway. This isn't based on much, in 15 + years we've only sedated five times or less. Twice for clipping (using less drug each time till she accepted the clippers) and then every other year for a teeth float for one mare that is notourious headshy about her mouth.

Answer 3

Corticosteroids- fluid retention, need to come off slowly after extended use,

Steriod inj into jt bursa- infection, extravasation

Bute-ulcers, reaction, anaphylaxis, death

Pcn, all antibiotics- anaphylaxis, reaction, death

IM in gluteals- Abcess, or there was a freaky condition where air can get trapped under the skin and they sluff the skin (equus mag like 2 mths ago I believe)

needle in vein or art- art will have pulsatile flow, vein will be constant flow

drugs in trach- pneumonia

slowly admin drug inj as bolus- depends on the drug, but death can occur, and severe reactions

Sorry had to answer on my people knowledge lol, I just haven't had alot of sick animals so hard for me to say on the others.

Great post Tommy.