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Married to a Louie Lover
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| Who’s used it? How do they act on it?
We have a 5 yr old colt who was roughed up when he was younger and can be a handful (okay that’s an understatement) on the ground at times. Case in point, hauled him to the vet this morning for coggins and vaccines, hauled him home without coggins and vaccines. He gets very nervous when 2 or more people are around him and it just wasn’t good. He went backwards as soon as we stuck him for the coggins draw and after that even pinching him for a vaccine wasn’t going to happen. Obviously we’ll be working on desensitizing him to skin pinching and hope that helps some as well.
Dormosedan was the vets suggestion, I didn’t have time this morning for it and he had another call so we’ll just try again when we get closer to actually hauling him places.
What have your experiences been with it? What sort of reaction will they still have? Compared to ace (I had stitches in my head because of how one reacted on ace, it’s not my preferred drug.) |
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 It's not my fault I'm perfect
Posts: 13739
  
Location: Where the long tails flow, ND | I give a horse of mine 2 tubes on the way to the vet (I'm usually travelling at least 2 hours away) if she is going to get poked for anything. She is extremely needle sensitive and has been in some bad situations. It's in her best interest to keep her safe and as stress free as possible. If it's more than shots needed, she will get 2 tubes and also be sedated once we arrive.
I didn't answer your question, they are fine. Some react differently, my mare needs 2 because 1 doesn't do a thing once she realizes whats going on. You'll just have to play with dosage.
Edited by SmokinGirlie 2018-04-11 10:09 AM
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 The One
Posts: 7998
Location: South Georgia | It didn't work for me. Could tell ZERO difference with the gel. Vet told me you have to get it perfectly under their tongue or it wont work. |
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It's not my fault I'm perfect
Posts: 13739
Location: Where the long tails flow, ND | horsegirl - 2018-04-11 10:15 AM It didn't work for me. Could tell ZERO difference with the gel. Vet told me you have to get it perfectly under their tongue or it wont work.
Yes this is true, you have to be careful with placement. I didn't read the directions the first time-lesson learned! |
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 Expert
Posts: 5293
| SmokinGirlie - 2018-04-11 8:08 AM
I give a horse of mine 2 tubes on the way to the vet (I'm usually travelling at least 2 hours away) if she is going to get poked for anything. She is extremely needle sensitive and has been in some bad situations. It's in her best interest to keep her safe and as stress free as possible. If it's more than shots needed, she will get 2 tubes and also be sedated once we arrive.
I didn't answer your question, they are fine. Some react differently, my mare needs 2 because 1 doesn't do a thing once she realizes whats going on. You'll just have to play with dosage.
2 tubes!!!!! HOLY SMOKES!!! LOl THe few times I have used it, I used a QUARTER dose than what the syringe indicated. One time I used the actual dose for 1000 pound horse and I had to tie that horse to the side of my trailer for about 3.5 hours before he woke up enough I felt comfortable even putting him back in his pen. He would stumble and almost go down, barely keep his eyes open, and his lower lip just flapped in the wind. Called vet thinking it was a reaction and she said nope, it can do that to a horse.. LOL I have found 1/4 dose works just perfect. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 575
| I've used it multiple times. You HAVE to get it under the tongue. It's absorbed through their mouths and doesn't work if they digest it. The first time I used it, I used 1 tube on a 15.2 hh mare who had never had her feet touched. She could barely hold herself up. Whoops. I used half a tube the next time and that was perfect for her.
I use it now for a different mare when she gets her feet done as well. 15.1 hh and stout, but she fights sedative hard. I give her a half a tube and stick her in her stall without feed or water. It takes about 20 minutes for it to really take effect. She can still perk up on half a tube but she is, for the most part, dragging pretty good. |
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Defense Attorney for The Horse
Location: Claremore, OK | You need to make sure you get it under the tongue so it will absorb.
***it will also take about 45 minutes for it to become effective.
I wouldn’t recommend it for trailering si CE it can make one really groggy.
If you’re ypung horse has trailering anxiety I would start with just a short haul a couple miles from home and back to get him more confident. I have several horses come in that get anxious. I might haul them when I go to town for a short trip, let them stand while I get groceries or something. I make several short trips and usually don’t unload until I see them getting quieter. I lengthen the trips as they get better. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| Thanks all, sounds like that is what we will try.
No trailer anxiety and we’ve wormed him a couple of times with no issues, so placement shouldn’t be a big deal, but noted about it having to be under the tongue. He’s an interesting case for sure.
Luckily we only live about 10 minutes from the vet that we use for basic things like this so I’ll schedule the appointment at a time when I have a few hours to kill, give it to him before we leave and head up there to wait for the rest of it to kick in.
How does it interact with other sedatives? For example we sedated him about 6 months ago at home for the dentist and didn’t have any trouble - I’m thinking today was the needle combined with being somewhere new as he hasn’t been hauled much. But in case we’ve now got a general needle phobia can we use the gel to take the edge off and then poke with the heavier sedative - or maybe like some are saying the gel is enough for a procedure like teeth! |
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 Brains Behind the Operation...
Posts: 4543
Location: Arizona | It works really well for some horses, especially ones that are difficult for routine things like vaccinations and farrier work. You do have to be very specific about how you administer it and give it plenty of time to kick in before getting started with whatever you sedated them for (we actually prefer the injectable version for these reasons). In my experience, horses seem to build up a tolerance to the paste as well, and if you need to use it often you wind up needing more paste over time. You also need to be aware that they can still move very quickly and unexpectedly by reflex while on it (i.e. kicking and striking). It's easy to be fooled into a false sense of security with their nose on the ground, but they can wake up for a split second and really hurt you, then go right back to sleep again. If the horse is prone to any dangerous behaviors like kicking, you might talk to your vet about having them administer a mixture of dorm with torb, which will keep their feet planted. |
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Brains Behind the Operation...
Posts: 4543
Location: Arizona | At the clinic I worked for, they usually used a combination of dorm, rompun, and torb for dentals. There was one particular client who had a mare that was notoriously bad with needles (was fired by her previous vet because of it). So the vets at our clinic just worked out a routine with the owner, where she'd show up about an hour before her appt, they'd administer 2 tubes of dorm paste and then just let the mare chill by the trailer for 45 min or so, then bring her in for whatever they needed to do. Worked out well that way, they were able to get her back on a routine schedule with vax, dentals, & even bred by AI with little to no trouble. But she was a fire breathing dragon if you didn't do that dorm pre-treatment.
Edited by Whinny19 2018-04-11 11:27 AM
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The One
Posts: 7998
Location: South Georgia | My vet told me to use 1/2 tube of gel. Didnt work for me, as I said above.
IV, however, made her nice and easy! lol
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 575
| OhMax - 2018-04-11 10:14 AM
Thanks all, sounds like that is what we will try.
No trailer anxiety and we’ve wormed him a couple of times with no issues, so placement shouldn’t be a big deal, but noted about it having to be under the tongue. He’s an interesting case for sure.
Luckily we only live about 10 minutes from the vet that we use for basic things like this so I’ll schedule the appointment at a time when I have a few hours to kill, give it to him before we leave and head up there to wait for the rest of it to kick in.
How does it interact with other sedatives? For example we sedated him about 6 months ago at home for the dentist and didn’t have any trouble - I’m thinking today was the needle combined with being somewhere new as he hasn’t been hauled much. But in case we’ve now got a general needle phobia can we use the gel to take the edge off and then poke with the heavier sedative - or maybe like some are saying the gel is enough for a procedure like teeth!
I know they will combine dorm and xylazine as injectables for hard to sedate horses. AKA- my fire breathing dragon at the vets lol |
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It's not my fault I'm perfect
Posts: 13739
Location: Where the long tails flow, ND | FLITASTIC - 2018-04-11 10:34 AM SmokinGirlie - 2018-04-11 8:08 AM I give a horse of mine 2 tubes on the way to the vet (I'm usually travelling at least 2 hours away) if she is going to get poked for anything. She is extremely needle sensitive and has been in some bad situations. It's in her best interest to keep her safe and as stress free as possible. If it's more than shots needed, she will get 2 tubes and also be sedated once we arrive.
I didn't answer your question, they are fine. Some react differently, my mare needs 2 because 1 doesn't do a thing once she realizes whats going on. You'll just have to play with dosage. 2 tubes!!!!! HOLY SMOKES!!! LOl THe few times I have used it, I used a QUARTER dose than what the syringe indicated. One time I used the actual dose for 1000 pound horse and I had to tie that horse to the side of my trailer for about 3.5 hours before he woke up enough I felt comfortable even putting him back in his pen. He would stumble and almost go down, barely keep his eyes open, and his lower lip just flapped in the wind. Called vet thinking it was a reaction and she said nope, it can do that to a horse.. LOL I have found 1/4 dose works just perfect.
Yeahhhhh I'm sure not all stays where it needs to be to be effective but she has severe needle anxiety so I have to make sure it isn't a wasted trip. She's never been so sedated for her to not handle the trailer ride or walking for that matter. In fact we had to IV sedate her when we arrived to do her teeth. She's s junkie ;) lol |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| Thanks all - I’m not sure what the dentist used last time to sedate him but it worked just fine and he took the needle just fine. I think today’s incident was hopefully just the added anxiety of being in the new place.
Since needles are the current issue - IV sedative isn’t an option ;-) and we’ll have to give the gel a go first.
We’ll see, I’m glad to hear folks using it and having good results. I’m not really concerned about him building up tolerance to it as we shouldn’t have to use it more than maybe 2x’s a year max. He’s not the best one we have to do feet, but our trimmer is fantastic and he’s getting better. I would probably also opt to use it when we brand him down the road. |
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Regular
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| It has worked great on every horse we have tried. MUST follow directions exactly. No fighting and they have learned correct behavior.  |
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 Dog Rescue Hero
Posts: 1660
Location: Oklahoma City OK | While we're on the subject of sedation, what's an effective tranquilizier that you can feed (on top of their grain)? A friend of mine has a young TB stallion that would make a fire breathing dragon look tame and needs something to do most anything with. Dormosedan under the tongue is not an option. ;-) |
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Expert
Posts: 5293
| smmthbr - 2018-04-12 8:05 AM
While we're on the subject of sedation, what's an effective tranquilizier that you can feed (on top of their grain)? A friend of mine has a young TB stallion that would make a fire breathing dragon look tame and needs something to do most anything with. Dormosedan under the tongue is not an option. ;-)
ACE can be used orally but takes longer to work, may even be longer if eaten with food instead of just squirted in the mouth, but usually 1-2cc ace orally is really effective. So ask your vet, but I could see 2cc squirted on some feed working with about 2 hours wait time to be effective. |
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Dormosedan Gel