Peter Rogers, [24 Aug 2024 at 07:31:38]: Good morning all. We are trying to catch a problem leopard, but it won’t go into a cage trap. We know exactly where it is. Is spiking a piece of meat with ground up Dormicum tablets still the golden standard or is there some other better drug perhaps please? Chris Smith, [24 Aug 2024 at 09:11:19]: Morning Pete! I have had good success in wild cheetah and wild dogs with a combination of the oral medetomidine paste (20mg/ml) from VTech and Dormicum tablets. Typically, they took about an hour to become immobilised. I used the same dose as you would via darting/injecting. I was able to approach on foot and hand injected butorphanol and ketamine (I generally use butorphanol - medetomidine - midazolam (BMM) so I injected butorphanol just to complete my normal dart 😅) and then ketamine just because they can be a bit light initially. I would give Trexonil and atipamezole once loaded. One thing to watch out for, is that in most cases, they tended to show ataxia 12-24 hours after ingestion. I think through the oral route there may be some “recycling” of the drugs but I’m not sure. I would then re-administer a full dose of atipamezole, and they would wake up as expected and I’ve never had to give more than these 2 doses. With the warnings I’ve had with yohimbine in carnivores, I have not tried it instead of or in combination with atipamezole. So, in my opinion if you do use this combination of oral medication, you need to keep them in a boma for at least 48 hours to ensure they are full awake. Peter Rogers, [24 Aug 2024 at 14:53:35]: Thank you Chris 👌🏻 Dave Cooper, [24 Aug 2024 at 17:14:09]: Hi Pete. I had good success with baiting lions using medetomidine (30mg/ml) in chunks of meat. I have no idea of what was actually consumed in terms of dose, but this worked like a charm. Peter Rogers, [24 Aug 2024 at 18:16:31]: Thanks Coops
