lasix acts as a diuretic to release fluid from the horse's whole body, when given roughly 4 hours before a race and the horse is not allowed to drink water, the horse will lose about 20-30 pounds prior to a race. the real question is, does the Lasix actually prevent bleeding in a horse's lungs? my guess is that it doesn't, because the fluid in the lungs have already been drained prior to the horse running, the blood replaces what would have been the natural fluids in the lungs and the lungs won't block.
now let's surmise that the horse is a known bleeder. there is legal stuff on the market that will cut down the amount of bleeding in the lungs called Yunnan Baiyao which will in most cases stop the bleeding without causing the horse to lose the natural fluids in his lungs if used without Lasix. there are other remedies that are used to stop bleeding that are supposedly homeopathic and in my opinion very dangerous for the horse but legal and untested. this stuff is used oftentimes with Lasix because Lasix causes the horse to lose weight before the race and helps to make him faster.
on the reverse side of the spectrum, if you give a horse Lasix and allow him to drink water, the horse will run slower than a mule.
the very hard fact that i learned in the 90s was i could send up the best, healthiest horses to the race tracks, not use Lasix and my horses would lose consistently to those horses that were treated with Lasix.
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