Curious if anyone has any experience with a horse coming off of (or tapering) Trazodone during stall rest. (5months so far) Will be talking with vet about this when horse is cleared but am interested in any first hand info -ie: any behavioral changes.
Thanks
I had my mare on Trazodone for 2 months during stall rest and return to turnout. The tapering process was easy and painless. I don’t remember noticing any behavioural issues.
Didnt have issues getting him off trazadone. Did have the issue of having to up the dosage to get the same effect while he was on it. He also developed noisy breathing while on it (which led to stopping it!) Vet found his lungs normal and rebreathing okay. The noise went away shortly after stopping.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
I got confused because I take Trazadone for my insomnia 
Didn’t even know horses could take it!
Probably not helpful, but its used as a sleep aid in humans as it is non-addictive and you can stop taking it whenever without issues.
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Yes, trazodone is used for people and for horses (in much larger doses)
And dogs! I take it myself for hot flashes/sleep, a small dose – and I have a prescription for my older dog (was badly attacked a few years ago) for when she is in anxiety triggering situations; it takes the edge off a bit but is not sedating.
Some of my dog students have told me that their vets recommend it for situational anxiety: it’s well tolerated, not addictive, very few side effects, etc. For horses, it seems like a better “go to“ than Reserpine, and has become more popular lately! I have no idea what the dosage would be for a horse, though – clearly that is something to discuss with your vet.
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My horse was on 2500 mgs of trazodone daily for 4.5 months. He was weaned off it but since being completely off of the medication he is acting very different. He is anxious , kicking stall boards out, rearing , spinning and spooking at everything, spewing staring in the barn aisle. Has anyone experienced behavioral issue like these after weaning off of the drug?
I don’t have any experience with a horse on trazodone but my dog takes it. We originally started her on it for anxiety and it was amazing for her. We tried tapering off and the process was fine but the behavior came back. We tried other meds like Prozac etc but nothing worked as well as trazodone so she’s back on it for life. That might be what’s happening with your horse the stress/anxiety behaviors are back now that he’s not getting the med.
My dog never had bad negative behaviors but as she aged her anxiety increased, Covid and the household anxiety of the humans put her over the edge. She’s not destructive but gets very very clingy and just not a happy dog. When she’s on it the only way to describe it is she’s just SO happy. She sleeps well, plays and loves life.
My gelding is on 900 mg. He’s about 1200 pounds. He has been on it since Jan, and I’d say it helps deaden the voices in his head a bit.
There is a lot of data on withdrawel from trazadone. I have heard horror stories in people that took them a year of tapering to get off it.
Trazodone Withdrawal: Symptoms, Timeline, & Treatment | Banyan Chicago (banyantreatmentcenter.com)
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Mine have gone cold Turkey off trazadone. Am I a monster?
I also had a horse on Trazadone and the vets just had me stop. Horse was fine, definitely more alert off of it but no issues! I should probably mention that we needed the Trazadone for a shorter time period than some of the other responses that I saw above so maybe that is a factor?
I am the OP and this is 4 months later. Early March is when traz ended but I did a taper down because we were going to slowly introduce turnout again and we knew he couldnt do that cold turkey. It worked out well for him. His disposition seems a bit more snarky & he seems a bit spookier - hopefully that will improve. He can be impatient & pushy at times, but he was like that before his Incarceration, (as I call it.) I will add, he was on 3300 mg/day for 6 mo.
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Hi, bumping this up because my pony is recovering from an injury, and being young and energetic, she’s becoming very reactive. This is even with 24/7 small paddock turnout as she is not quiet in a stall. It’s at the point where her trainer wants her medicated, to be safer for herself and her rider or handler. She is hand walked or tack walked 20-30 minutes per day.
The vet has suggested trazodone and I’m willing to do it - but how are the pills administered?
Check out the stall rest thread for lots of suggestions.
Depends on the horse. Mine quickly turned dangerous when I was dissolving and syringing them in, to the point where if I even stood at his door with a halter, he was turning and was either doing to double-barrel me, or jump out the other side (dutch doors). They are bitter, so I can’t say I blame him lol So, I said a prayer, dissolved a few and added some crushed peppermint treats he was already used to, mixed it in a few cups of soaked alfalfa pellets, and put it down. He didn’t miss a beat, licked it clean. So we spent the rest of the 6-8-ish weeks doing that, with more food than he had ever gotten (MUCH to his delight) because the stress of the situation was taking weight off, AND I was making darn sure the bitter pills were very well mixed in, and we never had one problem.
They do dissolve VERY quickly, and finely, which is a blessing
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My mare would just eat them whole in her dinner, and she was getting a LOT (8400 mg 2x a day). She was kind of a pig though, not picky at all.
Mine was never a picky eater either 
But he would not eat anything with minocycline capsules in it, so for the 10 days he was one it, I opened up 26 of them twice a day to syringe into him (which was before trazadone entered the picture).
OTOH, his dam happily ate 23 minocycline capsules twice a day in her minimalistic meals, even sucking them up in the process of hoovering up any spilled “slop”. She had would have nothing to do with traz pills in her feed the few times I wanted to just take the edge off her during our whole ordeal with her son, so I just gave up, not worth that battle.
Maybe different brands taste different too. Who knows!
