Ruan, [13 Sep 2024 at 13:33:27]: Good day everyone Is there someone here that can give some advice on what to dart adult male ostriches with? Neil Parsons, [13 Sep 2024 at 14:59:03]: Hi Ruan, I’ve had mixed success with ostriches, ground darting only. They can be a real pain. I recently tried a Thianil combination as suggested by someone else previously. 3 mg Thianil, 20 mg medetomidine and 20 mg azaperone. It never went down on this dose but was immobilized and appeared heavily sedated. I gave him 15 minutes before approaching and there was still a bit of a rodeo to handle it. It did sort of work though. I’ve tried 25 mg butorphanol + 20 mg medetomidine + 10 mg azaperone in a 1ml dart. This was definitely too low for a male. This particular male went down on that but would stand up and run off when approached. It seems once you start stimulating them, it becomes a mess. I ended up giving a total dose of 60 mg butorphanol + 55 mg medetomidine + 25 azaperone and 350 mg ketamine before we could catch him. If I try it again, I’d probably just use 50 mg butorphanol + 30 mg medetomidine and as much ketamine as I can fit in the dart. Would be interesting to hear other people’s experiences as well. Neil Parsons, [13 Sep 2024 at 15:12:28]: Ben sent me this dose a while ago: Adult female ostrich 2ml BAM + 200mg ketamine + 4000 IU WPSA Hyalase Down time 7.5 minutes, total downtime 58 minutes No top ups needed, no sudden wake ups, easily managed, drove asleep Reversal up and awake 3 minutes after reversal Perhaps compounded BAM has better efficacy? This would require two darts, or one large dart to fit all that in. Jacques Flamand, [14 Sep 2024 at 11:17:51]: In the Middle East I darted adult ostrich with 4 - 6 mg etorphine + 100 - 200 mg ketamine. Lasts 15 mins max.
