Sedative and cardiorespiratory effects of low doses of xylazine with and without acepromazine in Nordestino donkeys.

The research article discusses an experiment conducted to assess the sedative and cardiorespiratory effects of low doses of intravenous xylazine, combined with and without acepromazine, on Nordestino donkeys. Four distinct treatments were tested on seven healthy female Nordestino donkeys, and based on the findings, the researchers concluded that acepromazine added to xylazine at 0.25 mg/kg bwt resulted in brief and mild sedation compared to xylazine at 0.5 mg/kg bwt.

Research Purpose

• The objective of the research was to establish reliable data on appropriate sedation protocols for Nordestino donkeys, by observing the effects of low doses of intravenous xylazine with or without acepromazine.

Methodology

• In this blinded, randomised, crossover experiment, seven healthy female Nordestino donkeys were administered four different treatments.
• These treatments consisted of two intravenous injections – one at baseline (T0, 1st injection) and another 15 minutes later (T15, 2nd injection).
• The donkeys were given acepromazine and saline (AS), saline and xylazine (SX0.5), acepromazine and xylazine (AX0.25) or a combination of both (AX0.5).
• The researchers measured the sedative and cardiorespiratory parameters before T0 and for up to 90 minutes after treatment.
• Head height above ground (HHAG), ataxia (lack of voluntary coordination of muscles, making movements shaky), responses to stimuli and respiratory rate were gauged. Heart rate was measured by an assistant investigator.
• The behaviours were videoed and evaluated by three experienced evaluators.

Analysis & Results

• Depending on whether the data was normal or not, it was analysed using repeated measures ANOVA (for normal data) and Kruskal-Wallis (for non-normal data).
• It was observed that HHAG was lower for 15 minutes after xylazine administration in AX0.25 and for 30 minutes in SX0.5 and AX0.5 groups which means the donkeys had a decreased alertness after these treatments.
• The treatments with xylazine increased ataxia scores for 15 minutes after administration, regardless of whether it was combined with acepromazine or not.
• The treatments pairings with a higher dose of xylazine (SX0.5 and AX0.5) had higher ataxia scores than AS for 15 and 30 minutes after xylazine administration.

Conclusions

• The study does not include a negative control group (saline-saline) which might have limited the robustness of the findings.
• According to the results, use of acepromazine with xylazine at a dosage of 0.25 mg/kg bwt produced shorter and milder sedation than xylazine alone at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg bwt.