Best sedative for daily use.

[Stushica]

Long story short my mom decided to sell her horse so he horse decided to strain her DDFT. This has her on total stall rest for the next 6 months or so. I told her from the start that drugs were her friend but noooo she didn’t need them for her young already prone to being pushy horse. That being said, today she went to do her 5 minutes of hand walking and the horse blew up and she said that she was almost badly hurt and is now thinking that she needs something to make it through this rehab… For those of you who have had to routinely sedate a horse what did you use? What are the drawbacks, time to work etc. I’ve talked to my dad and he’s going to see what the vet has to say but I figured I’d hit up COTH for suggestions too!

Also, if anyone wants to do the rehab on a beautiful well gaited TWH, I think with more miles she would be the husband horse type and that my mom would be glad to give her away to a good competent home.

[BellaMia]

[QUOTE=Stushica;8867130]
Long story short my mom decided to sell her horse so he horse decided to strain her DDFT. This has her on total stall rest for the next 6 months or so. I told her from the start that drugs were her friend but noooo she didn’t need them for her young already prone to being pushy horse. That being said, today she went to do her 5 minutes of hand walking and the horse blew up and she said that she was almost badly hurt and is now thinking that she needs something to make it through this rehab… For those of you who have had to routinely sedate a horse what did you use? What are the drawbacks, time to work etc. I’ve talked to my dad and he’s going to see what the vet has to say but I figured I’d hit up COTH for suggestions too!

Also, if anyone wants to do the rehab on a beautiful well gaited TWH, I think with more miles she would be the husband horse type and that my mom would be glad to give her away to a good competent home. ;)[/QUOTE]

Daily drugs for a horse are not the way to go. If you aren’t able to handle him, then he needs to go to a professional trainer that can. If you want to sell him, then drugging him is still not the way to go. He may just need someone with more experience than your family has, which also mean no drugs. I’m sure others will give all the reasons why as I am still trying to get my house settled for the night.

[TheHunterKid90]

Reserpine.

[Laurierace]

BS Bellamia. Only an idiot would risk their horse’s recovery from injury because they didn’t want to use drugs. If it is just for handwalking you can usually get away with just using ace. If if it needed for in the stall as well you can use reseperpine too.

[Hunter_s_Rest]

Ace tablets.

[luvmyhackney]

Ace works great about 20 min before you hand walk. If you plan on squirting it in the mouth, you can use the flavor for water to make it tasty.

[JB]

[QUOTE=BellaMia;8867153]
Daily drugs for a horse are not the way to go. If you aren’t able to handle him, then he needs to go to a professional trainer that can. If you want to sell him, then drugging him is still not the way to go. He may just need someone with more experience than your family has, which also mean no drugs. I’m sure others will give all the reasons why as I am still trying to get my house settled for the night.[/QUOTE]

It doesn’t matter how good a handler is - if the horse is still a kite flying around you, the handler only has the means to not get hurt (too badly). They can’t make the horse stay on the ground.

The training card isn’t the one to pull when you’re talking about an injury that needs careful, quiet movement. That is a pent up, excited horse, and for all we know, he’d be worse without as much training and good handling as he’s getting

Stushica- you should have this conversation with the vet, as the vet will know the horse better, and know whether the situation warrants something given less often but longer lasting (like reserpine), or whether this can all be handled with some ace or something else just for the times he needs to go out for his walk. If he’s quiet enough in his stall, then I’d go with the ace - as little as possible but as much as necessary so that he’s still alert, but quiet enough to be at least reasonably well behaved and keep his feet on the ground.

If he’s twirling in his stall, then reserpine for a couple weeks might be the better way to go

[Dutchmare433]

Reserpine or other long acting sedative. Much easier than having to give something daily.

[starsandsun]

Reserpine with a top off of 2-3 ccs of Ace 30 minutes prior to hand walking. That ALMOST kept my youngster on the ground.

[BellaMia]

I miss read what was written. I thought the mother got hurt because the horse was a handful and they wanted to sedate because of their inability to handle the horse. That happens when you read something to fast and it is written a bit rough.

Understanding what was actually asked, then yes, ask a vet and get the right stuff. If it was the other way around as I origionally read, then what I said was correct.

[JB]

Glad that’s cleared up!

[BellaMia]

[QUOTE=JB;8867340]
Glad that’s cleared up! :)[/QUOTE]

Clear communication is always a good thing. Saves a lot of problems from starting from the get go. I’m sure this won’t be my last misread in the years to come though.

[JB]

LOL, trust me, I think most here have mis-read something

[BellaMia]

[QUOTE=JB;8867366]
LOL, trust me, I think most here have mis-read something :D[/QUOTE]

To often humerious results. COTH is the best.

[CFFarm]

Any sedative you use would be prescription anyway so talk to your vet.

[MysticOakRanch]

When I had to rehab my mare, I used Reserpine - it is not a daily drug, it is a long acting sedative. It is advertised to last up to a month, at least in my case, it was good for about 2.5 weeks - still way better then sedating daily. It takes the edge off without making them staggering sedated.

Ace is not my favorite sedative - some horses actually get frantic on it - sedated AND frantic is not fun.

[allons-y]

Re: Misreading - I read the title and my immediate response was “alcohol”, then I saw it was for the horse, lol

[joiedevie99]

If the horse is well behaved for all but hand walking, you may be able to get away with just Ace. If the horse starts to turn into a fruit loop in his stall as well, then I’d add something longer acting in addition.

[knic13]

Reserpine had the opposite effect on my gelding during stall rest, he became significantly more agitated and his stall walking amped up considerably. Thankfully, I had decided to try the oral version first, which is a daily dose, rather than the long acting injection. It still took several days for the effects of oral drug to wear off since it had a long half life. After that experience, if I do need to use reserpine for a different horse in the future I plan to do a trial with the oral version to make sure the drug has its intended effect rather than go straight to the long-acting injectable.

My vet wanted to go straight to the injectable version and hadn’t experienced problems with it but I have known of several horses that did not redone favorably to reserpine and i am glad I held my ground and had them order the oral for me.

[mychestnutvalentine]

There is nothing wrong with a little help handling a horse fresh off stall rest.

Long story short, my first horse (Ottb) was 5 yrs old coming off 6 months stall rest. Trainer told my mom and I (I was 12-13 yrs old) that we needed to get Ace and feed it to my horse before riding for safety reasons. Barn manager blew up at us, said it was absolutely unnecessary to feed Ace and that quietex supplement would work fine. My mom gave it to my horse and I tacked up and got on.

5 min later I was thrown into a wall, knocked out and my back was fractured in 2 places.

Please, call your vet and discuss options. I’m about to order some Ace for my mare coming off 2 months rest. You can never be too safe when handling a 1200 lb animal that have been on stall rest for a long period of time !