Close-up picture of the face of a trotting horse.
RESEARCH PROJECT

Optimize canagliflozin doses – decrease hyperinsulinemia and prevent laminitis

Updated: October 2025

Project overview

Project start: January 2022 Ending: December 2024
Project manager: Carl Ekstrand
Contact: Carl Ekstrand
Funded by: The Swedish-Norwegian Foundation for Equine Research.

Participants

Project members:

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Short summary

Horses with hyperinsuinemia are at risk to develop the painfuld condition laminitis. The drug canagliflozin has the potential to lower insulin levels and prevent laminitis.

Laminitis is a relatively common and very painful condition in horses. There is a strong correlation betweein elevated insulin levels in plasma and development of laminitis. In healthy horses insulin levels are kept at accepatable levels also after starch-rich meals, but not in horses with insulin dysregulation. Canagliflozin increases urinary glucose excretion which lowers insulin response. However, there is no information about how canagloflozin is absorbed from the stomach or at which rate it is eliminated from the horse. We also need more information about potential side-effects e.g. on liver or kidneys. This project aims at addressing those questions.

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