Erik Verryne, [10 Feb 2023 at 09:14:40]: Good morning. What can I use to immobilize a 8 month old white rhino calf that is ill and compromised for a clinical exam? I was thinking 10 -15mg butorphanol and 2mg medetomidine. Should I go higher on the medetomidine? Gary Bauer, [10 Feb 2023 at 09:27:42]: Hi Eric. I have used 0.5 mg M99 and 2 mg medetomidine. You can probably replace the M99 for 5 to 10 butorphanol ....good luck. I would not go higher on medetomidine. Pierre Nel, [10 Feb 2023 at 09:28:06]: On a healthy one, maybe slightly higher on butorphanol but good ballpark for a sick calf. You should be able to top up by hand or add a little ketamine if you need it recumbent, but maybe better if you could do it all standing Erik Verryne, [10 Feb 2023 at 09:28:13]: Oh dear. Just found it. It is severely stunted, and looks like a few weeks old. So rather 10 butorphanol and 1mg medetomidine ? Joel Alves, [10 Feb 2023 at 09:29:24]: Why not just straight butorphanol and no medetomidine for that size? Gary Bauer, [10 Feb 2023 at 09:29:42]: The mother looks thin. No Milk? Pierre Nel, [10 Feb 2023 at 09:32:18]: 0,1 mg/kg or 1mg/10 kg Butorphanol should work Erik Verryne, [10 Feb 2023 at 15:05:35]: Thank you for all the inputs. I darted the cow with Ulf’s “parking combination” as 35mg butorphanol + 12 mg medetomidine. She can be a bit feisty. She showed signs within 6 mins and started walking slowly 10 mins after darting, later in wide circles and only went down 30 mins later. So 15-18 mg medetomidine would have probably worked better and stopped her sooner. I used 5mg butorphanol and 30mg ketamine on the calf and she went down after 5 mins. Breathing was 10/min and HR 37/ min. It was responsive but stable. The BP was very low with the extremities cold. I don’t think it was caused by the drug combination. More likely the underlying suspected congenital condition and dehydration. The calf woke up within less than a minute after 10mg naltrexone IM and the cow at about 8 mins after 50 mg naltrexone iv and 60 mg atipamezole IM. Hendrik Hansen, [10 Feb 2023 at 16:48:12]: You can use 1 mg medetomidine , 2 mg maximum, not higher
