Pentosan Polysulfate = DEATH?!!

Here is the thing, depending on how you give the drug only a certain amount gets into the blood stream. Oral has the least amount of absorption, then intramuscular, then IV. I want to say the percentages are about 40% (Oral), 60% (IM), and 100% (IV), they are not exact because I don't feel like pulling down my pharmacology notes.

Now lets say you need to give him 10mg of a medication IM, that means only 6mg is going to be used by his body. You give him the injection and get vein on accident and don't know. You have just given him almost twice the normal dose and depending on the medication that could very well be lethal!

Thats interesting Sliding Stop. But for the record, my horse is good. So I guess that answered my question. I was dreading to look outside this morning, but even when I gave him the meds, nothing really happened, so I either got out of the vein, or my horse is just a beast

Lol, well I'm glad!! I'm just letting you know the dynamics of giving a drug. Some people think "oh, what's a little more?" Or "what's the big deal". If you feel comfortable with it that's your choice. Heck, I would!
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Glad your horse is okay.....maybe you should ask your vet some more questions about the safety of injecting this drug and what the consequenses are if you do it wrong?

I know someone that did a selenium injection that was to be given IM and died because it went into a vein.

Super Nova

If you didn't get blood drawing back the second time, you're safe ;)
I'm not sure on whether pentosan would be lethal if injected into a vein or not, but it is always given intra-muscularly so it's probably not something you want directly into the bloodstream.
I do know that penicillin can drop a horse within seconds if you inject directly into the vein!

I wouldn't give the OP a hard time about doing her own injections, as long as the vet has shown what to do and is comfortable with the owner doing it. I don't own a horse yet, but my cat vet allows me to give my own subcutaneous injections (antibiotics, avoiding extra vet trips for the cat). They demonstrated it in the office, and followed up with me by phone after the first couple of times to make sure it had gone well. Many cat owners give subcutanous saline fluid to dehydrated cats. I'd feel comfortable giving IM injections to a horse with enough instruction and guided practice, but probably wouldn't want to do IM injections on my cats, since their muscles, and the target areas within them would be so much smaller.

Man, if I had the vet out every time I've had to give a horse an injection I would be literally bankrupt. Of course the vet comes out to prescribe the drug, but then they leave me with however much I'm going to need and I take it from there.

Between my own horses and the ones whose owners have had me do the injections for them I have administered more than my fair share of shots!
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I don't really see many problems with an owner going shots to their horse as long ad they've been shown how to properly do it and are comfortable doing so. In my case, I will not administer my horse penicillin or penicillin-related medicines. This doesn't really have anything to do with the affect it'd have on the horse but rather the danger it would pose to me. If I come into contact with penicillin I could very well die if I could not get medical assistance fast enough. So in cases as such, I get the vet to do it.
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There's nothing wrong with giving an injection yourself, IF YOU KNOW HOW. OP has clearly had it explained correctly, so it's not an issue in this case. If you don't know what you're doing, properly, with injecting horses, then yes, you CAN kill the very animal you're trying to help - depending on the medication you're administering. You need to be VERY careful with penicillin, as mentioned, and a lot of other things as well.

If you're ever not sure, ask your vet. They will know. It's what they're trained for after all!