Adverse Effect of Antibiotics Administration on Horse Health: An Overview

Antibiotics-based therapy plays a paramount role in equine medicine because of their potential pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics properties. Conventional antibiotics show bacteriostatic and bactericidal properties by interfering bacterial cell wall and protein synthesis as well as inhibiting RNA polymerase, DNase 1, and DNA gyrase. Antibiotics are extensively used not only for the treatment of varied bacterial infections but also the prevention of postoperative and secondary infections. Surprisingly, antibiotics such as sulfonamides or trimethoprim/sulfonamide combinations, benzylpenicillin, cefquinome, fluphenazine, enrofloxacin, and sodium ceftriaxone cause detrimental effects on horses' health, namely, diarrhea, colitis, nephrotoxicity, ototoxicity, dysrhythmia, arthropathy, ataxia, anorexia, seizures, peripheral neuropathy, and certain neurologic abnormalities. Therefore, in equine practice, it is essential to optimize and analyze the combinations, formulations, route of administration, and dosages of certain antibiotics before administration. This review overviews the mode of actions and pharmacologic attributes of certain antibiotics, commonly used toward the treatment of disparate horse diseases. Most importantly, special emphasis was given to spotlight the potential adverse effects encountered during the administration of antibiotics as therapeutics in horses.