Are there any long term effects of Sedalin?

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wildhorses

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I'm currently at Tattersalls yearling sales and most of the horses here have had some level of sedation. I can kind of understand it in this situation and certainly when showing four or five horses deep at Doncaster with people crossing in front of me, horny colts mixed in with fillies in season I wouldn't have wanted my colt fully awake, here is more civilised but the chance for disaster quite high.

The stud where I work doesn't dope the yearlings at all during prep but having dealt with one of the biggest consigners of yearlings, we were going to prep them to be sold under someone else's flag, and sending them away as we were instructed to dope them daily, I was wondering how common this is. The large consigner, I won't mention names, sedates all their yearlings daily, from the day they come in to the day they are sold. The yearling managers hands are yellow from sedalin use.

Personally I feel this is a lazy unethical way of dealing with horses, I feel the same about trainers whose horses are ridden out doped too. The only reason for this is so that cheaper staff, lacking in skill can be employed and it is obviously time saving. But what is the long term effect on the horses? Surely it must affect them in some way. Can't be good for them. How can they learn if they are off their heads, and working them half asleep???
 
I certainly wouldn't think it was recommended for long term regular use! The biggest risk would be a drop in blood pressure which is minimal in a healthy horse as a one off/occasional drug to deal with a particular situation, shoeing, clipping, etc. But vets always check the horse's heart before sedation or giving a prescription for sedalin so normally this wouldn't be a problem but ad lib administration to horses who haven't been checked could be risky for some of them. It is also a type of muscle relaxant so for colts who "drop" there would be a risk of damage to their "parts" if left exposed for a long period also a small risk of "the parts" becoming paralysed if left dangling but usually only in breeding stallions who are well endowed! It can also affect temperature regulation and react with other medications. Increasing the dosage or prolonged use doesn't lead to greater levels of sedation it just increases the risk of side effects.

The simple answer is the horse is compliant because its sleepy but it interferes with the neuro transmitters so "learning" is unlikely to occur. Whilst they are sleepy to a degree they can and do react but this reaction can in fact be more dangerous in the sense that it can come out of the blue. Plus they are likely to be less well co-ordinated so in fact more likely to damage themselves or the handler. It would not be recommended to work a sedated horse, for safety reasons and for the reasons particularly associated with the circulation, muscle control and temperature regulation.

Also if staff are regularly handling the sedative without protective gloves it is possible that they will also be ingesting the product through prolonged exposure.... so they are probably a happy, sleepy bunch!!
 
I've been on yards where tubes of sedalin or back in the day ACP tablets were shared out like smarties, this is a very dangerous practise as you don't know how each horse will react, yes it is fairly safe when used appropriately for a specific purpose under veterinary guidance/supervision but at the end of the day its a prescription drug for a reason. Personally I felt on such yards it was often the people that needed doping not the horses!
 
I can see the logic in using it at sales or possibly with the occasional fractious or nervous horse that is being introduced to something new that may worrry them but not on a regular basis. I know sometimes it used to be used when backing a horse so that it could be relaxed and learn that having a rider was not anything to worry about but I certainly would not want to be working a horse of any age that was sedated on a regular basis. no idea of the long term effects though
 
I too was shocked to learn this was standard practice.

It was horrible for it to be insisted that the horses were doped. I had taken on one of the colts as mine to do. He had very little handling when he came, so was a bit tricky and there were difficult moments but in the three weeks he was with us awake, he improved so much and from being fairly vicious with his back legs when he first came he was happy to be groomed, even found his scratchy spot, he was a real character, he learned very quickly in the lunge pen. After we were told to dope him he was like a shell, completely dead behind the eyes and the only time he hurt me was when he was sedated, he jumped on my back. I just don't think he knew where he was and it was more inappropriate play than him being amorous.

I am appalled that for ease and convenience this is done daily. The first time some of these horses are awake is when they get to their holding or breaking yards. Then they must be wild.
 
My boy was on sedalin for about 6 weeks. He's off with a tendon injury and we are using it to get him to and from his few hours of restricted grazing and keeping him calm while he was in there. I hated having him on it but it was for the best. You could totally see it in his eyes though, he just wasn't there. I wouldn't have thought that would be ideal when trying to sell a horse, that it looks dead in the eyes. I asked my vet about long term use as I was worried nd he felt there was no harm and that he had known one on it for several months. I have to say OP, your account doesn't surprise me.
 
PErsonally I'd be reporting it as this should not be widespread- these drugs should not be so widely available in such quantities and it is clearly a substandard yard! I'd be moving jobs myself.
 
SusieT said:
PErsonally I'd be reporting it as this should not be widespread- these drugs should not be so widely available in such quantities and it is clearly a substandard yard! I'd be moving jobs myself.
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I think you've misunderstood my post. I certainly do not work at a substandard yard and as I said in the original post, we do not dope our yearlings at all for prep. I thought that was the norm. However after having two to do for a larger consigner I found out that this was not the case. In this instance, we were doing the prep work but the horses would be sold under their banner and therefore we were told what to do with the horses and that is why they were sent away.

My only reason for posting was to question whether the long term usage of sedalin was detrimental to the horse as I believe that it must be and found the whole notion of sedating horses on a daily basis fairly abhorrent and a demonstration of poor horsemanship.
 
Wish the Sedalin would work on my Welsh sec a before she has her feet trimmed, she has EMS and had laminitis since then she's been a nightmare having her feet trimmed and the sedalin just doesn't work, so they must dope them up pretty badly
 
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