Ridecamp: [RC] Miracle Leg Paint recall

Jonni <jonnij@xxxxxxxx>
Just passing this along for those interested.

FDA Orders Recall of Horse Drug

c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government has ordered a nationwide recall of a horse
drug sold over the Internet called Miracle Leg Paint, because it contains
mercury that is poisonous both to horses and to people.



Horse owners who have purchased the product should not use it. Instead, they
should contact local waste-management authorities to determine how to destroy
it without endangering animals, people or waterways, the Food and Drug
Administration warned.



Miracle Leg Paint, marketed by Equine Miracle Corp. of Grapeland, Texas,
contains a mercuric chloride blistering agent.



An old folk remedy for lameness and other horse leg ailments was to irritate
the horse's skin with that or similar chemicals, on the theory that the
blister would cause disease-fighting blood cells to descend on the area and
help the original leg ailment, said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, FDA's veterinary
medicine chief.



Only later did scientists discover mercury is toxic, and people who get
mercury-containing agents over much of their skin can become seriously ill,
even die, he added.



An Alabama veterinarian called the FDA on April 30 to say he had just
autopsied a horse whose owner had applied Miracle Leg Paint. While there is
no evidence the product played a role in the horse's death, Sundlof said, it
did spark an FDA investigation.



Equine Miracle Corp. was selling an unapproved drug, Sundlof said. The
company agreed to recall it Thursday.



Georgia Brown, who with her husband owns Equine Miracle, angrily asked why
the FDA didn't shut her down in 1999, when she first faxed the agency the
ingredient label of the then-new product and before the couple invested their
life savings in it. She said veterinarians are among her customers but had
never voiced safety concerns.



But the FDA said it wasn't aware Brown sold the product in 1999 - officials
thought she was asking permission to sell. In February 2001, the FDA wrote
Brown to say she hadn't provided enough evidence to win such approval.






   05/31/02 13:02 EDT

Here is the companies web page, which backs this recall:
 
http://www.equinemiracle.com/


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