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  Discussion on Zylazine and ace following operation
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New Member:
tbowner4

Posted on Tuesday, Jan 29, 2008 - 3:25 pm:

My two year old filly had severe colic, two operations were required to save her life, the small intestine had collapsed and stuck together. A hole was placed in the stitching to keep the intestine from sticking together again. After returning home, instructions were given to give her ace and rompun together to keep her calm and maintain healing. She began to colic each time that I gave her the IM shot as directed. She was given the rompun and did not have any problems at the hospital. My vet did not seem to be concerned that this was the reason she was acting as she had again. I then was instructed to giver her banamine as well. She also acted slightly hypotension which is not this horse normal behavior but had only been home first day and third day. The 3 vets said probably was as a result of the sticking together of the intestine. They jointly treated her as would for ulcers. My question, if this occurred when gave her the mixture, how would I know if she was allergic to the ace and rompun and do I need to keep the medication to counteract the hypotension (if that is what the agitation was) on hand just in case, or could this have been from so much medication over the week and half in the hospital. My vet also had me, after the fourth week, to treat her for parasites for 5 days. After the 5th week , she stopped showing signs of colic or excitement and has done fine since. My only concern is giving her the combination which I won't do again, but am having concerns if I may need to give ace or rompun for some unknown reason. I would hate to lose my horse if the vet couldn't get here in 10 minutes of less which is impossible. Thanks
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 30, 2008 - 6:31 am:

Welcome Owner and Trainer,
Allergic reactions to these medications are very rare but that is not to say there is not some pharmaceutical reason for the colic. It would not be easy to define which is going on but the latter more likely. Since the horse colics every time it is given this medication and since these drugs are not therapeutic for adhesion formation, why not stop giving it? On the other have the Banamine (flunixin) is helpful for preventing adhesions and should be considered.

And as to treating hypotension what medication are you suggesting to use? Epinephrine, the most commonly available, is contraindicated for both these medications in non-allergic conditions and the use for an allergic problem a bit of a quandary as a recent discussion revealed. The best treatment for hypotension is IV fluids. For treatment of hypotension from overdose of either acepromazine or xylazine see their respective articles Treatments and Medications for Horses » Sedatives & Anesthetics ».
DrO
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