Antihistamines for horses

[cutemangurdi1]

Anyone know the correct dosage for horses and which brand works best for pollens? With a vet prescription will a chemist sell them in industrial quantities?

Update- Thanks Emily for the information. We put Arnie on Piriton and its made a big difference to him this season. His skin hasn't thinned as much- he has been hyper sensitive previously and had a lot of head shaking. Its made a massive difference. Didn't need it for anyone else- false alarm, but I wish we had ignored the vet in previous years and tried it for Arnie as he would have had two comfortable years and I suspect we would have got a bit more riding out of him.

[dalesnfellfan]

When I tried antihistamines for Briallens head shaking my vet advised 12 tablets daily and said to try different brands as some active ingredients work for some horses and some work better for others so its trial and error, sadly none worked for her, but its worth a try.
You can buy them in larger quantities on line, can't remember the sites though.

[heathera]

I have no idea about antihistamines but when we needed a human drug for Drummer my vet wrote a prescription (they charge for this but how much varies from practise to practise) and I took it into our local Boots pharmacy. I explained it was a for a horse and they smiled and ordered in the mountainous level of pills we needed with no problem.

If there's a horse equivalent you are obliged to buy it though, even if the human version of the drug is considerably cheaper. it's why some cushings horses are being PTS now rather than treated as a company licensed the drug for horses, cornered the market and trebled the price.

Some places will accept prescriptions online but be very careful, a few places have been found to be selling sugar pills instead of the proper drugs. I'd only ever use a UK based place and I'd want lots of checks on who they were registered and licensed with.

[hannahj]

I was told 7 twice daily. I just went to the chemist and asked for the cheap equivalent of piriton. About 30 tablets for about £3 ish.