Anyone know anything about Xylacine?

[PapaFrita]

Xylacine is a calmer/sedative recommended by a vet as an alternative to ACP for horses. She says it's milder, so they come out of their dopeyness quicker and it's therefore safer if you need to ride them. I was thinking of it for PF's travel anxiety as there was thunderous tapdancing going on last time she travelled and she looked as if she might go down even BEFORE the trailer was moving. Fortunately she settled, but I don't want to put her through that unnecessarily. Interestingly she always walks on with absolutely no hesitation.
I don't have a trailer of my own, and hiring one (the decent one we share with 6 horses to go to competitions with) would be prohibitively expensive, so whilst I would like to reassure her with lots of loading, unloading and short trips, this is impossible.
Other suggestions welcome though.
Oh, have been feeding epsom salts which whilst help generally haven't done anything for her travel stress.

 

[setadrift6]

I dont know anything about the drug you are asking about. But if you travel your horse in a trailer on her own have you tried traveling without the partion? When ever I travel a single horse in the trailer I always cross tie at the front and have NO partion. When travelling two horses then I put the partion in and tie them up normally.
If traveling in a lorry try putting her near the ramp so she is first off.
Good Luck!

 

[PapaFrita]

Hi, no, she travels in a 7-horse trailer (not a typo; it really is huge!) and she's always at the end as mine are the last horses to be picked up. She gets on fine, but seems to get panicky within a few seconds, even if the trailer isn't actually moving.

 

[kcgibson]

hi, xylazine is the generic name and a trade name is rompun. We use it at work for sedation although i wouldn't have thought of it as milder than acp. We use it as a sedation for cats (we use acp also) and they always go more sedated with rompun than acp. The vet carries rompun in the colt castrate kit although ive yet to see him use it as we tend to use other drugs. In small animals, at the doses we administer, the animals are more sedated with rompun than acp. Not sure if its the same in horses but the how 'sleepy' an animal goes depends on the amount of drug administered.

 

[PapaFrita]

Thanks for that! Sounds a bit scary if it makes them sleepier than ACP! I think I need to research a bit further

Do they come out of it any quicker, have you noticed?

 

[glenruby]

If you were considering using it for transport to competition then its not a good idea. Horse will be dozey and unsafe for riding, not to mention that its a banned substance in competition. I have used it on yearling colts travelling long distances(16hrs to New York) in the lorry to sales, but its effects have long worn off by the time they are required to show (the following day). There aRE different dose scales for different degrees of sedation.

 

[kcgibson]

cant help you on how long it last really cos we use it as a pre-medication to anaesthetic, so we see them come out of the anaesthetic rather than the pre-med. I think on the occasion when we have used it on its own (sometimes we do that for taking xrays) they are always more awake with the acp and so they fully recover more quickly as they have not been as deeply sedated.