@Ghazzu I was wondering your thoughts on sedatives - do you feel they dull the reaction to the stimulus, or do they also numb the stimulus itself?
musings on selected equine pharmaceuticals.
Firstly, it is difficult to separate sedative vs. tranquilizer in equine pharmacology, and most authorities consider that the drugs used to produce one also produce the other, to a greater or lesser extent.
That is not necessarily the case when one looks at whether sedatives/tranquilizers have analgesic effects. That depends upon the class of drugs under consideration.
For example, the common α-2 adrenergic agonists (xylazine, detomidine, romifidine) have analgesic, sedative, and muscle relaxation. They can also cause a drop in heart rate and blood pressure, a decrease in respiratory rate, a decrease in GI motility, and ataxia.
On the other hand, the commonly used phenothiazine derivative acepromazine, while providing sedation and muscle relaxation, does not provide any analgesia. It can also cause vasodilation (which can be a reason to use it in some instances) as well as a slowing of GI transit time. Another potentially undesirable effect is penile protrusion in stallions and geldings and this sometimes ends up as an irreversible paralysis, so caution is warranted regarding use particularly in stallions.
Another phenothiazine is fluphenazine which is long-acting and used in human medicine as an anti-psychotic. It blocks dopamine receptors and comes with some significant potential side-effects including muscle rigidity and behaviors such as relentless circling, pawing and striking.
Fluphenazine enjoyed some popularity as an illicit medication, as the detectable levels waned before the sedative effects. Personally, having seen the adverse effects, I wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.
Then there’s reserpine, which was also popular before it was testable. It is an inhibitor of sympathetic nervous system activity (the fight or flight side of things) and causes sedation, lowered HR and blood pressure, and often diarrhea (used by some to titrate the dose.) It can cause a fatal drop in blood pressure if one administers xylazine to animals that have been given reserpine, so don’t lie to your vet!
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Probably somewhat dependent on the particular drug, but most likely some of both.
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Sometimes I underdrug with painkillers my dogs after surgeries . I’ve found they are kind of like horses that way. Too much painkiller and they think they are fine. Just a little less and they are just sore enough to stay quieter.
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She was kenneled or leashed for a month. At least for the day after she just laid around and literally cried. Broke my heart.
This, the day of and the day following surgery, is not a pain reaction but a reaction to the disoriented feeling from the sedation medications.
I went thru that recently and I know for a fact that my dog had lots of pain meds on board from the vet (and more than one pain med sent home to continue the pain control).
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I’m not sure with just Dermaxx at normal dosages that she wasn’t in pain. That’s a wicked surgery, and that’s not really what that pain med is for.
That said, she’s recovered beautifully.
IMO, the key to good and appropriate horsemanship is having the knowledge and understanding of the proper and appropriate use of medications for horses. Again, IMO, not appropriate or right to sedate a horse in competition. Questionable to sedate a horse to help them have a “good training experience” if the time and effort of exposing, training and desensitizing have not been properly explored and taken. Sedating a horse rehabbing from an injury to prevent injuries to self and others under a vets orders seems appropriate. Medicating a horse with analgesics/nerve blocks to perform at a level it should probably not be performing borders on abuse. Medicating a horse for a painful procedure is humane. Medicating an older horse to walk-trot with a kid and keep it moving to keep the arthritis at bay seems reasonable. Just because we CAN does not always mean we SHOULD. Good judgement is imperative.
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Yeah, Deramaxx doesn’t give very good pain control, it’s basically the equivalent of a human NSAID like Advil. Poor dog!
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Mine was in my wrist (broken) and I didn’t feel a thing during or after. I really do think the location and substance injected makes a big difference in the discomfort/pain level of the injection.
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Any injection into hands or fingers is going to be excruciating. I’ve had way too many of those.
lunging like that and drugging should both be illegal on the show grounds. I agree a small dose of sedative is better for the horse but if it needs even that then it shouldnt be showing…
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Don’t even get me started on the use of forbidden or illegal substances at rated AND local shows. It’s rampant everywhere and their is always something “new” popping up. Just do it right. And don’t come at me with a little pain killer is ok because I take Advil. You chose to take Advil, the horse doesn’t choose to be ridden. If they can’t do their jobs without being injected and drugged to the hilt, step them down or retire them. If you took care of them better in the first place they wouldn’t be in this situation 90% of the time. I said what I said. Been doing this on the circuit without drugs and injections over 4 decades. It CAN be done.
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Oh and sedating a horse that’s going to be ridden is downright negligent. Riding a tranqued horse IS dangerous. We have safesport for humans, now we must catch up for horses.
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It is.
Rated shows will often allow “schooling/non-competing horse” entries for exactly this reason. It allows use of the facility for training and exposure without a full competition entry.
I’m taking my green TB to his first show in a couple of weeks. Shipping in the night before to school and hopefully competing the next day. If he struggles Friday night, we’ll just hand walk and see the sights and then let him hang in his stall. We’ve done a fair amount of off-property work so I’m hoping he settles in and handles the atmosphere well.
I talked to the show secretary when I made stall reservations - they have no issue with me flipping my back number over to go in as a non-competing rider in other classes to get him more show ring schooling opportunities if there’s space to do so.
Patience and careful choice of venue would serve a lot of young/green horses better than drugging for early show experiences.
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I cannot imagine giving a dog the human equivalent of Tylenol when they’ve just had their knee sawed in half and pins and screws drilled into the bone. That’s insane to me.
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Most orthopedic veterinary surgeons use a multimodal approach to pain control these days, including pre-operative dosing to avoid wind-up, use of local anesthesia even when GA is being used during surgery, opiods during and immediately post-operatively, sometimes epidural opiods, and followup with oral NSAIDs post-op.
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Yes I work at a vet college and the pain management here is extensive. Thankful that most other ortho surgeons stay with that standard of care.
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How about this. Please understand I don’t think drugging to show a horse is acceptable at any show (USEF sanctioned or not) 
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Many of our local schooling shows here say they follow USEF regulations. Where I’m at, I almost always see a “CA- Drug Fee” on our schooling show entries. I assume that fee is going somewhere.
