Equi-Tox® Pharmaceutical Research & Development

To date tens of thousands of mares suffering from equine fescue toxicosis have been successfully treated with domperidone.  One of the few drugs used in pregnant animals, domperidone has been used to prevent and treat:

1. SYMPTOMS OF EQUINE FESCUE TOXICOSIS

Prolonged Gestation
An extended gestation period in gravid mares often results in severe dystocia.  Mares that try to foal after an extended gestation period often lose the foal, or produce foals with abnormal skeletal frames.  Additionally, foals are often rotated 90 to 180 degrees from the normal position for delivery, greatly increasing the chance of foal and mare mortality.

Pre-mature Placental Separation & Redbagging
Pre-mature placental separation usually occurs during the last trimester of pregnancy and can be accompanied by prematurely developed udders and sometimes milk leakage.  Placentas that become thicker with a reddish color and a higher retention rate prior to parturition is frequently termed "red bagging."  Without proper treatment, red bagging and placental separation will result in the loss of foals due to suffocation.

Agalactia and Low-Level Milk Production
The milk of agalactic mares often appears as a brown or straw-colored oily-looking fluid, rather than the white milk of normal mares.  This fluid has little nutritional value and foals invariably die unless bottle-fed.  In addition, mares that have the straw-colored fluid rather than white milk often suffer from a lack of normal immunoglobulins in the milk, resulting in a lack of immunoglobulins in the foals.

2. OTHER USES OF DOMPERIDONE

Reflux Gastritis and Post Surgical Gut Motility
Reflux gastritis occurs when the amount of gastric juice that refluxes into the esophagus exceeds the normal limit.  In addition to the typical symptoms of heartburn, regurgitation, and dysphagia, abnormal reflux can cause atypical symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, chest pain, and damage to the lungs, vocal chords, ears, and teeth.

Follicular Growth
Domperidone assists in promoting follicular growth in transitional mares.  With correct treatment, ovulation size follicles may be induced.