Stirling Products [ASX: STI] has been granted an Australian patent or the treatment of heaves in horses with R-salbutamol.

The company has already been granted a patent for the same concept from South Africa, and Stirling representatives say they expect more grants to follow shortly.

A patent application for the inhaler device developed to help administer the drug, the Equinehaler, has also been lodged.

Heaves, also known as recurrent airway obstruction, affects an estimated 25-30 per cent of all horses in Europe and the US.

Stirling is also looking at using R-salbutamol - a highly purified version of salbutamol, better known as Ventolin - as a growth agent and as a treatment of obesity in dogs.