The use of low doses of acepromazine as an aid for lameness diagnosis in horses: An accelerometric evaluation.

This study focuses on understanding the impact of two different levels of dosage of the drug acepromazine on the trotting pattern in horses, using accelerometry. This is in line with the objective of figuring out if this drug can be helpful for diagnosing lameness in equines.

Methodology

• A total of seven adult horses were brought into the study.
• Three treatments were administered to each horse, namely a saline solution, acepromazine with a concentration of 0.01 mg/kg, and acepromazine with a concentration of 0.02 mg/kg.
• The horses’ trotting pattern was quantified by using an advanced portable gait analyzer. This device used three orthogonal accelerometers that measure accelerations in three different directions: dorsoventral (top to bottom), longitudinal (head to tail), and lateral (side to side).
• Baseline readings were taken before the treatment was administered. After the application of the treatment, recordings were taken every five minutes during the first 20 minutes. After this period, recordings were taken every 10 minutes for the next two hours.
• The ground to lip distance was also measured during the experiments.

Results

• The administration of acepromazine impacted certain variables by decreasing them. Differences were also noticeable between different doses.
• Specific variables including speed, stride frequency, and stride length saw a significant reduction post treatments.
• Coordination parameters remained unaffected, showing no significant deviations among the readings.
• Energetic variables saw only minor reductions, while there was a significant decrease in the ground-to-lip distance values. This effect lasted up to 120 minutes after treatment.

Conclusion

• Acepromazine was found to produce notable alternations in the gait pattern of horses, with the level of alternation varying based on the dose used.
• Importantly, the drug did not affect coordination variables in horses that were not excited.
• Based on these findings, the study concludes that a dose of 0.01 mg/kg of acepromazine might be the best choice as a tranquilizer for evaluating lameness in horses in a similar setting.