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Discussion on Nitazoxanide for EPM approved as NAVIGATOR
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Board Administrator
Username: Admin
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Posted on Tuesday, Dec 23, 2003 - 10:01 am:
Nitazoxanide is now approved as a treatment for EPM and marketed by IDEXX under the name brand Navigator. The advantage of this drug over the other drugs currently available is that it is protozoalcidal instead of static. This means it will kill the organism rather than just stops it from growing. In the article on EPM we present a summary of the drug insert and some personal communication with IDEXX on the results of the testing of NAVIGATOR including efficacy and safety.
DrO
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Member:
Jcsmoon
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Posted on Sunday, Dec 28, 2003 - 9:25 pm:
Thank you for posting this info on NTZ or "Navigator". Our filly was part of the field trial for this drug, unfortunatly she was one of the 5 deaths. We definatly saw every odd effect but I must attribute this to the advance stage of her condition when we started.
I would like to suggest to anyone chooseing to use this new med, commit to very close monitoring of vitals. We found her responses to the drug required immediate response. We also had to adjust the med doasage after discovering that our fillys high fat diet was causeing way more of the med to be absorbed than desired.
Best wishes to anyone faceing this terrible disease. My heart goes out to you and the long road you face. May you be part of the 80%.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Monday, Dec 29, 2003 - 6:42 am:
You are welcome Emily, I remember the EPM diagnosis. How certain were they that the reason for the increased blood levels was the high fat diet?
DrO
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Member:
Jcsmoon
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Posted on Friday, Jan 2, 2004 - 11:06 am:
I would have to say an educated hunch. Dr. Cordik, who was overseeing the research at that point for Blue Ridge Pharmecuticals, indicated that the drug was fat soluble and was dosed according to standard fat intake of a horse. The filly's fat level at that time was 25% of her calorie intake so they felt this was contributeing to her exceptionally high blood levels of the drug and may have been worsening her treatment crisis. When we started the study we were told to medicate with a meal, but due to the fillys response we started to go over things with a fine tooth comb. It was then I told her of the fillys specific diet and Dr Cordick had me immediatly change the doseage.
We were asked to adjust her intake by half. Dr Cordik stated that the information gained from toxicity studies indicated that horses overdosed on NTZ died of dehydration due to diarrehea and gatrointestional upset, not liver or kidney issues. She believed that the fillys dramatic treatment crisis was a result of the parasites being killed off too fast taxing her bodies ability to get rid of them.
*anyone reading this please understand that this filly was in very advanced stages of EPM and this should not reflect upon the safety of this drug*
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Monday, Jan 5, 2004 - 5:16 am:
Thanks for the update Emily and a interesting caution for those with EPM on a high fat diet.
DrO
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