Clinical and behavioral effects of intravenous injection of romifidine (60mcg/kg) or amitraz (0.4mg/kg) were compared in six horses, over 120 min. Romifidine caused head ptosis (HP), reduced respiratory rate (RR) and ileo-cecal sphincter activity (IC) until 120 minutes; produced posture changes (PC) until 90 minutes, upper eyelid drop (ED) and sedation (SD) until 60 minutes, intestinal motion (IM) reduction and lower lip drop (LD) until 45 minutes. Amitraz reduced heart rate (HR), RR, IM and IC, and promoted HP, ED, LD, penis drop (PD) and sedation with posture changes until 120min. At 90min amitraz produced HP and ED more intensively than romifidine. The LD was similar between 45 and 60 minutes. Romifidine produced intense sedation at 10min while amitraz sedation was more significant between 90 and 120 minutes. It is concluded that both romifidine and amitraz can produce strong sedation until 60 and 120 minutes, respectively. Though amitraz sedation and posture changes had a later onset related to romifidine, these effects lasted longer.
horse; amitraz; romifidine; sedation
