so my horse broke his coffin bone about 4 months ago and has been on orally fed powdered reserpine for about 3 months. I’m going to start bringing him back into work in a few days and want to start to take him off of the reserpine after then. Does he need to be weaned off? I’m thinking of doing 3/4 scoop for a week, then 1/2 scoop for a week, then 1/4 scoop for a week until he’s no longer getting any. Is this a good plan, or should I wean him off more slowly? or just take him off of it all at once? I understand that it takes a while to get it completely out of their system and it will test for a while, but that’s not an issue considering we won’t be showing for quite some time.
i’ve also heard of horses being insane after they’re taken off of reserpine.
any experiences??
Is his turnout situation changing at all soon? How slowly do you have to bring him back?
My experience this winter/spring - I took my horse off reserpine after he was able to go outside in a small pen and I started riding him. I planned to keep him on it but he was really weird to ride while on it - explosively spooky rather than just spooky. I can look back at my notes, but I think I pretty much cut him off cold turkey.
He’s back to full turnout and close to regular work and has been off the reserpine for >2 months. He’s still quite jumpy and spooky about stupid things like birds when we are riding and overreacts. Hopefully it goes away!
My gelding had an adverse reaction to Reserpine (restless, couldn’t settle down, sweating heavily) so we were advised by the vet to immediately discontinue it. Once we dropped it, he relaxed and was fine.
theresak- he will start to go out in an actual field instead of a dirt paddock in probably a few weeks after he’s back in work.vets instructions are to walk for a week, then trot for 3 weeks, then I can start to canter him. I will say that he has never been spooky. he was only on it because he would have panic attacks in his stall (rearing, bucking, spinning, etc) and even today one of the workers at the barn dumped a giant wheelbarrow of water behind him and he didn’t spook hardly at all. hopefully he’s not a freak when we take him off
[QUOTE=peterponie;8763910]
theresak- he will start to go out in an actual field instead of a dirt paddock in probably a few weeks after he’s back in work.vets instructions are to walk for a week, then trot for 3 weeks, then I can start to canter him. I will say that he has never been spooky. he was only on it because he would have panic attacks in his stall (rearing, bucking, spinning, etc) and even today one of the workers at the barn dumped a giant wheelbarrow of water behind him and he didn’t spook hardly at all. hopefully he’s not a freak when we take him off[/QUOTE]
I would say then it’s up to you depending how he feels under saddle on the reserpine. I rehabbed another horse walking and trotting on reserpine and some ace right before riding and he was fine. My horse was super for 4 months of hand walking on reserpine and not fun at all under saddle on reserpine.
It also depends on what your vet thinks worst case scenario is regarding his healing injury if he gets crazy in his stall again or if he explodes under saddle. If the healing is to a point where it doesn’t really matter and you are just trying to get him fit again before turnout, you can probably stop dosing right away.
