[2022/02/17, 16:16:18] Pete Morkel: [2022/02/17, 16:29:18] Pete Morkel: Afternoon All. Repeating the story of using azaperone in black rhino and putting them lateral and pumping their legs vigorously. Immobilised this female this morning. D b minor, about 6.5 yrs and lovely condition. Put 3.5 mg etorphine + 106 mg azaperone + about 4000 IU hyaluronidase in dart. Gave 4 mg butorphanol IV when I got to it. Kept it lateral and pumped the legs every 10 minutes. SpO2 90 plus and heart rate 50s. Gave additional 120 mg azaperone IM at about 20 minutes and another 120 mg azaperone plus 1 mg etorphine at 60 minutes. Put VHF transmitters in both of her horns. Woke her up at 80 minutes with 100 mg naltrexone IV. Left in lateral position. Stood up very nicely and trotted off. [2022/02/17, 16:30:39] Pete Morkel: [2022/02/17, 17:13:44] Leith Meyer: Pete, it would be great to measure blood pressures and blood gases before and after your top-ups. In white rhino, a 0,5mg etorphine top up in subadults bulls had a profound negative effect. Will forward paper for those interested. [2022/02/17, 17:15:17] Leith Meyer: [2022/02/17, 17:49:40] Pete Morkel: Thanks Leith. It would indeed. We had the pulse oximeter on the whole time and didn't pick up any changes with that. She was light with the butorphanol and hence the relatively high azaperone and the 1 mg etorphine. If we had kept her sternal, I suspect she would have stood up and it was also why I didn't put her sternal before giving the naltrexone. [2022/02/17, 18:25:11] Dave Cooper: Pete, reason for giving any butorphanol initially? Considering no complications with immobilization? In my opinion, it is no wonder it was a bit light especially working on the front end! [2022/02/17, 20:45:59] Pete Morkel: Thanks Dave. Good question. For quite a few years now the majority of black rhino I have been working with are East African D. b. michaeli and in my experience it's a "no brainier" that one should give double the etorphine dose of butorphanol the moment you get to them. Opioid -nduced respiratory depression appears to be a much bigger problem with them than other subspecies - and I think a good number of vets who work with them will agree with me on that. I think I have never given D. b. bicornis butorphanol to improve respiration as their breathing and blood oxygenation is inevitably excellent. I have probably had the least experience with D. b. minor and generally I find their breathing is good, but I have been caught out once or twice. Perhaps it was unnecessary to give the 4 mg butorphanol to the female this morning, but the temperature was over 40 C (the fixed wing aircraft had been following the animal for some time) when we got to it and the initial reading of the pulse oximeter was 79% before I gave the butorphanol. After giving the butorphanol, the blood oxygen went into the 90 % and with the excellent breathing and wetting and using a leaf blower, the body temperature came down smartly. Was it wrong to give the butorphanol? - possibly, but I would prefer to have too much oxygen than too little and a lively rhino rather than a dead one. We worked successfully on the rhino for more than an hour and got the job done and the rhino stood up nicely and went off at a trot even though it had received a good amount of azaperone. I'm happy. [2022/02/17, 21:45:20] Jacques ODell: Pete, why 106 mg azaperone? Or is that a typo (should be 100?) [2022/02/17, 21:50:08] Pete Morkel: Jacques, because I filled up the dart with it after putting in the etorphine and that's what it works out. I would have been happy with 100 or 120, but it was actually 106. [2022/02/17, 21:51:36] Jacques ODell: Thanks Pete 👍🏻
