Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Atipamezole in the management of detomidine overdose in a pony.
- Journal:
- Veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia
- Year:
- 2007
- Authors:
- Di Concetto, Stefano et al.
- Affiliation:
- The Royal Veterinary College · United Kingdom
Plain-English summary
A pony was supposed to have a routine surgery but accidentally received too much detomidine, a sedative, before the procedure. The overdose was only noticed when the pony didn’t wake up from anesthesia as expected. To help the pony recover, a medication called atipamezole was given, which successfully reversed the effects of the sedative. After treatment, the pony was able to stand up, and a little more atipamezole was given later to manage some mild drowsiness. Overall, the treatment worked well to counteract the sedative overdose.
Abstract
OBSERVATIONS: A pony undergoing elective castration accidentally received an overdose of IV detomidine (200 microg kg(-1)) before anaesthesia was induced with ketamine and midazolam. A further 100 microg kg(-1) IV dose of detomidine was administered during anaesthesia. The mistake was recognized only when the animal failed to recover from anaesthesia in the expected time. The overdose (300 microg kg(-1) in total) was treated successfully with atipamezole, initially given IV and subsequently IM and titrated to effect to a total dose of 1100 microg kg(-1). The pony regained the standing position. A further injection of atipamezole (76 microg kg(-1) IM) was given 5 hours later to counteract slight signs of re-sedation. CONCLUSIONS: Atipamezole proved an effective antagonist for detomidine in a pony at an initial dose 3.65 x and a final total dose 3.9 x greater than the alpha2 agonist.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17238965/