Episode 59 – Detomidine OTM Gel – The perfect PVP Protocol for Zack!

I really wanted to share Zack’s story as I get asked so many questions about how best to handle very fearful and potentially aggressive canine patients in the veterinary setting.

The answer is - there is no simple or blanket answer – and every patient must be treated and considered as an individual.

It helps, of course, if you have many different tools in your toolbox and you have the knowledge and experience to use these tools wisely and to select the right tool for the right patient.

In Zack’s case this was detomidine oral trans-mucosal gel, an equine sedative that can absolutely be safely used in dogs, if you know how.

Zack’s caregiver was able to apply the gel while playing with Zack before he came to the clinic, and I was then easily able to administer an intra-muscular sedative to facilitate the examination and veterinary care he needed.

Here are the papers on the use of detomidine OTM gel in dogs originally published by Dr Hopfensperger in 2013 and 2016, but the doses in these have been superseded in a recent abstract, which was presented at the Veterinary Behaviour Symposium in 2023.

1. Hopfensperger, M. J., Messenger, K. M., Papich, M. G., & Sherman, B. L. (2013). The use of oral transmucosal detomidine hydrochloride gel to facilitate handling in dogs. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 8(3), 114–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2012.10.004

2. Messenger, K. M., Hopfensperger, M., Knych, H. K., & Papich, M. G. (2016). Pharmacokinetics of detomidine following intravenous or oral-transmucosal administration and sedative effects of the oral-transmucosal treatment in dogs. American Journal of Veterinary Research, 77(4), 413–420. https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.77.4.413

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