Alternative chemical immobilization protocol in a group of captive feral horses using homemade remote delivery

This is an article on feral horse remote chemical immobilization  submitted and accepted for poster presentation at the  International  Conference on Diseases of Zoo and Wild Animals, 16th-19th May 2012, Bussolengo/Verona, Italy.

You can download full article here: Alternative chemical immobilization protocol in a group of captive feral horses using homemade remote delivery

Summary
During a 6 months period, we managed to safely perform 102 remote chemical immobilisations on a group of 50 recently captured feral horses. For all procedures a standard combination of 25 mg detomidine, 62.5 mg tiletamine, 62.5 mg zolazepam and 10 mg butorphanol per delivered dart was used and repeated when necessary. We used 3.5 ml handmade darts delivered by an 11 mm wide improvised blowpipe. For better darting and anaesthesia induction results an additional smaller no-eye contact enclosure, was built which reduced the stress of the immobilisation procedures. Bigger and highly temperamental horses needed more than one dart to get recumbent. In most cases (78.4%) the horses had a smooth induction and awakening. The 19.6% rougher awakenings were attributed to longer anaesthesia onset and duration or to the individual horses temperament.

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Travel log book of a student

So, we’re (almost) back from holidays, and it is time to post an article that is already long due. It was published in the last EAZWV newsletter this year and it tells the “story” of the latest EAZWV conference from the point of view of a student.

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May was an unexpectedly crazy month for me this year and I barely had two quiet days in a row. It seems that May has the highest conference/congress/symposia density per unit of time and, like any other passionate (ok, geeky) student, I tried to take part at least in some. Of course that my neat and organized Austrian schedule went right down the drain, and turned into a chaos. I had to reschedule a whole week of clinical rotation, 4 courses and at least 3 assistants and professors heard my apologies on why I wouldn’t be able to attend their lectures…But I made it (I think…).

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Exotic Animal Surgery Conference, Brno, May 2009

May was an unexpectedly crazy month for me this year and I barely had two quiet days in a row. It seems that May has the highest conference/congress/symposia density per unit of time and, like any other passionate (ok, geeky) student, I tried to take part at least in some. Of course that my neat and organized Austrian schedule went right down the drain, and turned into a chaos. I had to reschedule a whole week of clinical rotation, 4 courses and at least 3 assistants and professors heard my apologies on why I will not be able to attend their lectures…But I made it (I think…).

Our first journey was only an hour and a half away from Vienna, where I study. Very well prepared for a mountain expedition, with tent, sleeping bangs and a ton of food supplies, we went off to learn some surgery…

CAZWV, the Czech spin-off of EAZWV, organizes a conference in Brno every 2 years on specific topics. In 2007 the theme was exotic small animal dentistry, and this year, between 30^th of April and 3^rd of May, Brno hosted talks about soft tissue surgery.

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…and this is how we spent 4 days in Lepzig PART 2

Leipzig… a quiet little German town where campings are ridiculously expensive and young lads walk around in the middle of the night, day, morning, (or through the whole day for that matter) drinking their brains out on the streets. Yeah, I know, it was some sort of a holiday, but nevertheless, it was interesting to see so many totally wasted people on the streets.

For tight-student budget reasons we stayed in a camping, in tents. In times like these, you get to appreciate the quality of your tent and sleeping bags. After 4 nights in the tent, at 5ºC, you start to feel your true age.

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…and this is how we spent 4 days in Lepzig PART 1

This happended last year, in May 2008, and since we are about to get on the road again, I thought it’s worth remembering:

Ovidiu was waiting for the EAZWV congress for month. He was almost too excited (even for him). I have to admit I wasn’t… Still under the influence of my “middle study crisis”, I guess… And the thought of spending 150 euros on 2 days and a half of boring lectures was quite appalling. But I’m glad I didn’t back out.

So the story begins…

We made the long journey to Leipzig with Ovidiu’s poor car. I’m saying “poor” because it was filled up to the extent that one more jar of pickles would’ve produced an implosion on it’s own weight. To cut the costs we decided to take two friends of Ovidiu’s who were trying to make a cheap, short holiday, so their luggage added up… so we had 5 huge rucksacks (5 because a lady always carries a bit more attire…), 1 huge paraglider (took up half the trunk), tons of food, 2 tents, sleeping bags, mum’s cookies, home made “pasca”, veggie “drob”, etc etc etc… You can imagine.

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