I am honored to have permission to post this answer to my question - TopicsExpress



          

I am honored to have permission to post this answer to my question What is your opinion on thyroid medication in race horses? the answer was as follows: Trainers administer thyroid hormone to their horses with the hope that it will be a PED. As you know, it will increase lean muscle mass, increase the basal metabolic rate (HR, BP, etc) and eventually cause nervousness and anxiety which these inexpert trainers read as the horse is ready to run when in fact, it is a sign of toxicity. The international governing body for all other equine sports, the FEI, has put thyroxine on its controlled substances list as having the potential to be a PED. I also believe it belongs on the banned substances list in horse racing. The other reason I have been told it is given to racehorses is due to the fact that abuse of cobalt as an EPO like substance, can cause low thyroid activity. So the bottom line is we need to enforce the standards of practice for vets which would require a blood test documenting hypothyroidism before an individual horse could be prescribed the medication. Then regular tests would need to be done to be sure the supplementation was adequate. In nearly 30 years in practice I have never had a patient under 10 years old with even borderline thyroid hormone levels. And never in a racehorse. I do regular screening for endocrine assessment and they are always high normal as we would expect a young thoroughbred to be. Thank you very much for caring about this issue. We need an army to confront the corrupt practices. ~ Dr. Sheila Lyons, Founder and Director, The American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 18:30:19 +0000

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