Horse Sedation with an Oral Gel (AAEP 2010)

A study showed that oral detomidine gel successfully sedated horses for routine procedures.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

We’ve all heard about or witnessed horses that simply refuse to be restrained long enough for the veterinarian to administer a much-needed intravenous sedative. Authors of a recent study suggest that a sedative-containing gel might be just what the doctor ordered in these cases.

Detomidine is an α-2 adrenergic agonist and one of the more common drugs used to sedate horses. Usually, veterinarians administer detomidine intravenously, but they can inject it intramuscularly as well.

For those "hard to reach" horses, an oral formulation that can be administered by either a veterinarian or horse owner/trainer would be a valuable product, said Gary W. White, DVM, of Sallisaw Equine Clinic, in Oklahoma. White and colleagues tested the gel in 129 horses, and he presented the results at the 2010 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 4-8 in Baltimore, Md.

"The horses in the treatment group were sedated with a single, sublingual (beneath the tongue) dose of the gel prior to performing such procedures as cleaning the prepuce (sheath), clipping hair, trimming feet, shoeing, manual rasping of teeth, radiography, and passing a stomach tube or endoscope," said White

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Stacey Oke, MSc, DVM, is a practicing veterinarian and freelance medical writer and editor. She is interested in both large and small animals, as well as complementary and alternative medicine. Since 2005, she’s worked as a research consultant for nutritional supplement companies, assisted physicians and veterinarians in publishing research articles and textbooks, and written for a number of educational magazines and websites.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
291 votes · 291 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!