Since the old thread was, well OLD, I thought I’d start a new one specifically about dosages and effects. So, my approximately 1000 lb. horse was prescribed 30-100mg tablets 2x/day for rehab purposes. Said horse was STONED when I came the next morning, so no way I’m giving that dosage twice a day. (vet agreed and said we could give 1x/day) I’m actually experimenting with 20-25 pills each day and having success. In reading another thread, it seemed like others were giving much less, so my question is: what was your horse’s prescribed dosage? Please include size of pill and amount of pills. Thanks!
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I like to titrate up to the effect I’m looking for. For some horses I get there at like 600 or 800 mg bid.
Others have taken 2000 mg bid.
I had one that developed something that looked like serotonin syndrome, which was really pretty frightening, so I’m just very careful anymore.
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The dose is often listed around 2.5mg/kg once a day, to up to 5mg/kg twice a day, so an enormous range to work with, but I’ve seen other ranges listed, from 3mg/kg to 10mg/kg.
I was using 1800mg twice a day, which was basically the low end of the dosing, about 2.5mg/kg, and only occasionally went up but even then just to 2250. I was working with 150mg pills, so 12-15 each time
Sedation, or “sedation”, can just vary so much. I have one 1250lb horse who needs far more sedation for dental work than another, and it’s that “another” horse, 1400lb, who was getting the lower dosing of traz, even if it was twice a day
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I had a violent, dangerous mare on this at a dose of 57 150 mg pills twice a day. It took the edge off but you could barely tell she was sedated.
She was always a tough sedation, though. But I wouldn’t worry too much about overdoing it. Mine was on that for 3 months.
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Has anyone ridden a rehab horse on Trazodone instead of Ace? I’ve used it successful for stall rest but never tried starting one back in work on it. Fortunately, this is a hypothetical question right now.
For stall rest, we started w the vet’s recommendation but were able to lower it significantly.
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That sounds like a smarter way to go about it. 30 2x/day was overkill for this one.
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I get that there’s an element of “it depends”, but wow, that’s a big variance.
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That’s wild, yikes!!! What was the final outcome?
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That’s going to be my next question, lol! You first.
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Edit: I could have been more clear, if your horse is too drugged at the vets initial dose, cut it down, then titrate up. Then your horse will build a tolerance and, depending on if your horse is the type to settle into stall rest or get more restless with time, you might be ok or you might need to increase the dose over time. Everyone is an individual.
One quickly develops a tolerance to trazodone, so definitely titrate up! The first couple days they will look extra stoned, then you’ll see a more moderate sedation.
After playing around with the dosage, I believe we landed somewhere between 1.5-2.3 mgs/kg 2x daily, so 8-12 of the 100 mg tabs BID for an 1150 lb warm blood.
Also yes I started a horse back to ridden work on trazodone instead of ace. I can’t remember the dosage but had spent many months adjusting per day and activity on the ground. Just start tracking know how your horse seems xx hours after yy dose, so you build an algorithm in your head for how much you’ll want on board when you get there.
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When we’ve used it, we’ve not noticed a tolerance at all for stall rest. In fact, quite the opposite…we scaled back quite a bit from the vet’s original recommendation. It appears to be a drug that is definitely not a one size fits all. Thank you for the information re: riding.
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I agree; I’ve not noticed tolerance issues. It definitely does seem to be very individual!
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I had an 800lb yearling that had surgery and he started at 10ml of the 100mg/ml trazadone BID. It worked well for him for about 1 week then I went up to 12ml BID then up to 18ml BID for the last 2 months he was on stall rest. It would have less effect as time went on (as others have mentioned). It did work really well for him and I would notice when it would start to wear off as he would kick the walls (he never does this, just when we was on actual stall rest for the 2 months, he’s never kicked stall walls since).
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No tolerance here either, and this was 6-8 weeks of twice a day dosing. But drugs like these are weird in that the effective dose can vary SO much (as seen here), and tolerance varies, from doesn’t tolerate at all (becomes MORE reactive, or other weirdness) to needs more and more
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We have a 900lb-er rehabbing on it. We started on 26 1x/day and we found if we gave it about 30 min prior to handwalking it was ideal. We are 90 days in now and are riding and we’re down to about 20 1x/day.
We were prepared to give it 2x/day if needed, but didn’t.
We rehabbed another one a few years ago that trazadone did not work on.
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That’s very helpful information, thanks! I’m doing the opposite of you right now, titrating down, as it seems that the vet prescribed a pretty heavy dose for this particular horse.
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I’m glad it worked for you as you experimented, and I hope the little one healed well and is back doing what babies do. 
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That’s good information to have, thanks! My vet was adamant in the beginning that it needed to be given twice a day, but I told them that just wasn’t going to happen, lol! THEN, they said they looked into it and that it was still effective just given ONCE a day. We’re just on stall rest atm, but hopefully will be considering using it as said horsie is cleared to go back to work.
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My horse was on stall rest for 2 weeks and was beside himself. I gave 1500mg 2X a day and it calmed him down. I had to play around with the dosage at first, to see what worked best.
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Yes, you’re confirming what I’ve discovered. Varies greatly between horses, vets. Also need to be willing to experiment with it a bit. I guess I just wish I would have been told that by my vet, from the beginning.
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