Experience with resurpine (sp?)

[UNCeventer]

Hey- Just curious about resurpine. Why did you use it and how did it work? Did you ride your horse while on it? What other things did you notice about it and its effect on your horse.

Thanks-

[bludejavu]

I have only used it with a broodmare in the past but it worked quite well for her. She suffered from terrible herd separation anxiety but needed to come up to the broodmare barn during her last few months to be grained (before foaling). Companions did nothing for her and she would lather herself in a sweat and then colic. As she got older, she got worse so we finally resorted to Resurpine. It worked well enough to get keep her from working herself into a colic although she would still fret a bit. It would wear off after about a month and she would be well adjusted by that time. I've heard posters on here speak of their horses either having odd reactions or it doing nothing for them at all - my mare never had a reaction to Resurpine and we used it with her last four foals.

[purplnurpl]

I used it to hopefully stay on my 8 year old eventer (TB) who is in rehab after being off for 16 months.

It gave him explosive diarrhea for a day. I came home at 2am (left at 7pm) and cleaned out 3 muck tubs of wet crap. He felt terrible for two days. His eyes were all squinty.

During week two he was terrible and dumped my ass so hard that I couldn't walk for a week. Then the next time I was on him I had to dismount the moment I had him with all 4 feet on the ground.

So I used ace.
He's now turned out and I have to use spurs and whip to make him go.

So basically, I hated the stuff. And it made him feel so terrible that his RXN alone would make me never use it again. I felt terrible for him those first two days.

My friend used it once on her horse. She said her horse was on it when he kicked the crap out of her a few years back. And he was very colicy on it.

But it's better than Prolixin. I guess.

If you need it I'd try it.

[pharmgirl]

I used it on my horse while he was rehabbing from SI and suspensory injuries (at the same time). The main issue we used it for was that he kept kicking in the stall, and ace didn't seem to help that. I used oral tablets, which we titrated to the lowest amt to get the desired result. I never had issues with diarrhea, but he did start getting a bit crazy around month 4 on it, and so we just took him off it and he was fine (we were about to start taking him off it anyway).

I did ride him while on the reserpine. I actually liked doing that better than ace b/c the reserpine doesn't affect their motor function like ace can (depending on how much ace you use).

[Fharoah]

I tried reserpine on my gelding during rest with no secess. It works great for some not so great for others, can be some scarry side effects (diareah, colic) but those are rare. It ace isn't cutting it I would give reserpine or even fluphenazine a try. Best luck, I am all to familiar with stall rest.

[cajunbelle]

My Vet had said something about "they see... Blue Smurfs" at least some of the time, not her favorite.

[judybigredpony]

Long term TB track lay-ups w/ injuries that went for being in full race training to zero complete stall rest.
worked well on a 2yr old w/ bone buises who had to kept completely quiet and short hand walks, no bouncing up n down.
To a 7yr TB stallion w/ a re-occuring tendon issue. Didn't work on him at all.

Vet recommends we give Banamine the 1st day or 2 since they seem to lay down a bit sweat n act colicy as a side affect.

[draftgirl01]

Blue Smurfs, funny, I used it on a gelding I had that was laid up and was told the same thing, that they can start to hallucinate with it, but we had no choice and he was not being ridden and it worked well for him.

[Watermark Farm]

My gelding was on reserpine for a couple of months while on layup. He did fine for the most part, it was a lifesaver that kept him quiet. It lowers their blood pressure, so they get cold easier. You have to watch that and blanket accordingly. A couple of times I came out in the morning to find him shivering. Poop got soft but never had any diarrhea problems. I gave lots of probiotics and also slippery elm bark, which I find helps soothe the GI tract a bit.

My mellow, bombproof, 23 year old horse did wind up flipping out completely after about 8 weeks on the drug. I was giving powdered reserpine every other day at that point. I strongly suspect it was related to the reserpine, although could never know for sure. He became very irrational, violent and dangerous, resulting in a nighttime emergency vet call. It was so severe I contemplated euthanizing him --- he was body-slamming the stall and so dangerous I could not even get in there to halter him. It was simply horrifying.

I talked to numerous vets, including UC Davis, and surprisingly, very few knew much about reserpine and any "psychotic" events associated with it. I am certain my horse basically lost his marbles for about 48 hours. Took him off reserpine cold turkey, although used heavy 2x doses of Ace daily while doing so, and he was back to his normal groggy self.