EQUUS

POTENTIAL DOWNSIDE OF SEDATION DURING LAMENESS EXAMS

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Although sedation can help make a lameness exam go more smoothly, a new study from Germany suggests that it might affect how the horse moves, making diagnosis more difficult.

Xylazine or other mild sedatives are sometimes administer­ed to horses who might otherwise make lameness examinatio­ns challengin­g, explains Matthias Rettig, DVM, of the Free University of Berlin. “Some horses are uncooperat­ive during a lameness exam and kick, which can be difficult and dangerous,” he says. But sedation can make a horse sluggish, so Rettig and his fellow researcher­s set out to determine whether it affects the biomechani­cal parameters that veterinari­ans use to diagnose and pinpoint lameness.

For the study, researcher­s attached inertial sensors to 44 horses who were randomly split into two groups. Baseline lameness examinatio­ns were performed on all of the horses, then half were given a low dose of the xylazine. The remaining

Reference:

Veterinary Journal,

The data revealed that sedation had no significan­t effect on pelvic movement in horses with hind-limb lameness. Nor, initially, did it influence the movement of horses with forelimb lameness. However, in a few of those horses, head movement decreased 60 minutes after sedation.

The reason for the delayed effect in a short-acting sedative is unclear, says Rettig, but he offers two theories: “One reason could be that it calms the horses down and they get more used to the trotting-up-and-down procedure during the exam, which results in a reduced head movement,” he says. “Also, the analgesic effect of

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