Advice of sedation?

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HaffiesRock

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My new pony has terrible feet. He was terrified when the farrier came to take off his one remaining shoe and jumped all over the place. He is staying barefoot and the trimmer is coming on Wednesday. I have been working on his feet and he will pick the fronts up fine, but gets worried aafter about 20 seconds and hops around. I can get one back up fine, but worried again, the other back just up, but pulls it straight away again.

He needs a lot of work doing on his feet, more than he is going to tollerate I think. My trimmer lives a long way away and comes to me on her 6 weekly round so I cant really get her back again to do it in stages.

Would sedation be a good option? I thought about twitching but I cant find anyone who has done it before or has one, so then I thought sedalin. Any other ideas?

How long does sedalin take to work and then wear off?

Thanks everyone. x
 
I have had a horse that was difficult with the farrier - I used sedalin on several occasions and sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. I found it to be the same when tried it on another horse for clipping.

I usually administer sedalin at least an hour before the 'stressful' situation, and the horse needs to be in a relaxed state of mind - if you give it after they are wound up it won't helps.

If it was my horse I would be tempted to try twitching first off. If that doesn't help there is a new oral sedative that can be bought from the vets but can't remember for the life of me what it is called! I think you can administer it yourself.

The other alternative is proper vet sedation which although will add to the cost of the trimmers visit, may be the kindest option if you need a lot of work done.

Just be careful of sedation of any form, as they can still fight it, usually when you have relaxed and are not expecting it!

Good luck!
 
Sedalin lasts a few hours and is great because if you give them just enough to take the edge of then they are aware what's happening but just chilled! Be carefull twitching I sore a blacksmith get a very nasty kick in the head once when a mare was twitched and the person holding the twitch had it on right the horse just. Came round :( hope that's helped you :)
 
Thanks everyone.
With proper vet sedation, how does it work?. I am assuming vet gives it in a vein. How long does that last? Does the vet have to stick around etc and what aftercare would they need?

I am new to all this sedation/twitching malarkey!
 
Some blacksmiths can sedate them themselves! Yeh a vet puts it in veins but won't have to hang about! A horse will stay sedated around. An hour then be a bit clumsy after! When they are sedated will be really wobbly on feet and would be tricky to do I'd say! Your best and cheepest option would definatly be the sedalin and if that fails then I'd look into a stronger sedation
 
I've used ACP tablets in the past on a young pony that wasn't very good with the farrier, as other have said, they need to be relaxed when you give it & it takes 45mins - an hour to kick in. Daughter's new eventer was also bad to do hinds & we used it on her the first few times.

I found that it really helped, we used two tablets for the first couple of times then one tablet the third time & she's been as good as gold ever since. I think that it helped that she wasn't completely 'out of it' & was aware of what he was doing, just more relaxed about it.

Some do fight it so you need a competent handler & wear a hat, boots & gloves in case.

Good luck.
 
We have a blacksmith who has a clinic remodelling broken hooves and does sedate the horses himself as he has to when glueing the hooves back together! He does a lot of raceyards around my area
 
The oral sedative previously mentioned could be Domosedan...? (Think I've spelled it correctly). It's basically the same stuff that they would get injected with by the vet. I've used it for my boy who is terrified of needles and it works great. :)
 
He may sedate horses katiesdolphin, and the horses may need sedating, but that alone doesn't make it legal. Perhaps he also has medical training, or perhaps the sedative he gives is oral and prescribed by a vet for those individual horses. In which case there's no problem. Your initial post made it sound as if some farriers were able to prescribe and administer oral or intravenous sedation just because they're farriers. Rather a scary thought that there may be such dodgy people around.
 
There are certain farriers that do this and I would say they do have training for it as they hold clinics for hoof repair! The farrier I'm on about does intraveinus not oraly and there has never been anything said as vets do recomend him to clients that have horses with poor feet! You can't get the stuff unless you are liscenced anyway
 
Another vote for ACP. Used to give my mare some when we first got her as she was a pain. Gradually reduced doseage, although never as good as the boys she became OK. Her problem was she was spoilt as a youngster when she should have had some firm handling.
 
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