So this is a new one to me…I was rehabbing a horse after surgery and vet had given me a vial of ace. It expired, but I like having it on hand in case I have to evacuate suddenly (flood area).
Recently asked vet for another vial but all she could give me is one pre-measured syringe per horse. Explained that is was a drug of human abuse, which I had never heard. Ketamine? Yes. Xylazine? I guess that’s a thing now. But never heard of addicts going for ace? Also couldn’t find anything online.
Never heard of that. Apparently HcG is used as a weight loss drug? It is considered controlled and cannot be carried across state lines (by a non vet). Considering my repro vet is in another state… I’m like I just want my mare to ovulate 
Acepromazine is one of the members of the phenothiazine class of drugs. Back in my young days as a hospital resident, we routinely ordered another phenothiazine drug almost identical to acepromazine, chlorpromazine (Thorazine) to treat postsurgical nausea in patients who were a high risk for aspiration, such as facial trauma patients who had their jaws wired shut. I recall extrapyramidal side-effects being not uncommon. Manifestation was uncontrolled jerky muscle contractions of the limbs which were quite distressing for the patients, and even more so for the relatives who were present.
I can imagine a drug seeker working around a horse barn rummaging through the horse meds in search of something to take for themselves, and deciding that since Ace is used as a tranquilizer it might be worth a shot for themselves. Anyone with some pharmacology training though, would know that there are different classes of sedative/tranquilizers. For example Ace and Thorazine are pharmacologically very different from the benzodiazepine class of sedatives, like Valium, Xanax, and Ativan.
Yeah the HcG thing came up in the documentary on American Gladiators…they mentioned that along with the other horse steroids they were all injecting. Crazy.
That’s very interesting. I remember my mom talking about a local farmer ending up Alonso’s killings himself after taking bute for a migraine. I guess desperation breeds…innovation or something.
Bute on small quantities used to quite a common hangover cure back in the day (and in fact was a common human painkilling drug many moons ago before they discovered it could eat your liver.)
Ace is safe and effective in horses and it is not unreasonable to keep a bottle on hand. I have not heard of anyone purposefully using ace in humans. It is possible with all the recent noise over xylazine that your vet’s practice now has a generalized dispense only one dose policy.
This is most likely explanation! I was just surprised she thought people were shooting it up.
As opposed to my experience in my vet’s office the other day when I asked for 3 3cc syringes of Dex to treat my horse’s hives, and they came out with a large bottle. “No, I just want 3 syringes. I have no need to have a large bottle of Dex on hand.” Then they came out with 3 syringes. Just the empty syringes… Then they came out with 5 3cc syringes of Dex. Where that number came from I do not know, but I basically took them and ran at that point.
Maybe I live under a rock. What recent noise?
Being mixed with fentanyl or heroin to enhance drug effects and increase street value. It significantly increases the possibility of opioid overdose death. Xylazine was involved in 1 percent of drug overdose deaths in 2015, and increased to 7 percent in 2020. In a program which exchanged used for new syringes for addicts in MD, almost 80 percent of used syringes contained xylazine mixed with an opioid.
There was a country vet and a farrier that used to take banamine and other horse drugs. Sometimes for hangovers, sometimes for aches and pains. Both are no longer with us and I am sure this didn’t help their health. Anyway, the vet related that once he took ace for a hangover thinking he was taking banamine. He said it was awful - gave him a horrendous headache and he wouldn’t make that mistake again. That is the only case I know of a human taking ace.
It doesn’t increase the value of street drugs, but it has horrendous side effects in human addicts.
People are using xylazine with/ instead of fentanyl and are dying. Narcan doesn’t work on xylazine. Legislators want to restrict its use.
Ohh. I had no idea that was going on.
I wonder if it’s just a CYA. Partially because of the xylazine problem, but partly because of increased scrutiny.
Vets are having to tighten up on what the prescribe all around. Between antibiotic resistance and human drug abuse, vets have been put on the hot seat to make sure they can prove a VCPR before dispensing medication. I know a lot of vets who have gotten very conservative with what they will prescribe without eyes on the animal.
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