TWITCHS

[horselover247]

hi- my horse needs a nasal swab and it needs to go right to the back of the nose ...... he is a 4year old and as you can imagine not to happy about a long stick being shoved up his nose ...............so the vet came out to day and did one of the swabs (he needs 3 done) and he pulls out a twitch and promptly used it and see no other options i had to agree ......I don’t want to use it again .......or is it not that bad ....my horse seemed terrified after wards but my question is there any other way to keep a 4yr old gelding still whilst a 30cm (at least ) get shoved up his nose???

[horsefeed]

I know many people are very anti twitch, in this situation I would let the vet do it, having a tube shoved up your nose must be horrendous, if the vet is quick and efficient the twitch is only on for moments and I think sometimes its just easy and safer for both vet and horse to get it over and done with asap and then give lots of treats to say sorry

[donnalex]

Id have let the vet do it too, rather that than sedation and the risks involved or worse still an accident. Although it does not look nice they dont seem to bear a grudge afterwards.

[specialized]

The vet is obviously used to using a twitch routinely, if you don't want to use it next time you can always ask for sedation - but you will probably be adding £40 to the bill.

[horselover247]

Dec 13, 2012 17:21:36 GMT 1 horsefeed said:

I know many people are very anti twitch, in this situation I would let the vet do it, having a tube shoved up your nose must be horrendous, if the vet is quick and efficient the twitch is only on for moments and I think sometimes its just easy and safer for both vet and horse to get it over and done with asap and then give lots of treats to say sorry

thanks i just needed to know if i wasnt being uduly cruel

[horsefeed]

I wouldn't say so

[mandal]

I think I would ask for sedation for this. One reason to hopefully dull any memory of the event in a youngster. May not be a valid reason but that's my initial thought and gut feeling. I am not pro sedation either btw.

[kizi]

If he needs it done a few times he may start to anticipate the twitch and resent it a little. He may see the vet as associated with it. But he may not.. Some react more than others in my experience. I tend to decide based on the animal/situation.. With youngsters I do prefer sedation if its likely to get stressy or take some time.. But! Nose bleeds etc and damage from fighting anything nasal-swab/gastro tube etc can also be pretty distressing..
My vet insisted this year on twitching for chipping my babies.. I objected strongly, but only because I knew if the vet was quick enough my babies were well prepared for it.. However in the heat of the moment and knowing the vet I agreed, because if the vet needed the twitch for him to be happy and so less hesitant I figured it was the best option for my babies, knowing I wouldn't be likely to use one on them again.. They didn't react at all and got a good nose rub and treat after and didnt seem to remember anything bad had happened..
In an emergency it is sometimes necessary..
I'm not for or against, tho obviously prefer not to.. I would say look at how quick and easy the procedure was v safety v horse recovery after and base your decision on that...

[jennyb]

I wouldn't have a problem for a quick veterinary procedure like this. You're likely to find no lasting harm has been done. Vets are not paid to train your horse and have their safety to think about. I do object to twitches being used instead of long term training, but now and again they are a useful tool for things like this. In fact I keep one in my first aid box, just in case. If it's a choice between not giving urgent vet care because of the risk of getting your head kicked in, the twitch would go on! Never had to use it like this by the way, but you can guarantee if you didn't have one around, you'd need one!

[mrsfields]

it really depends on the horse... some horses can react quite explosively to twitches and you have to get the timing exactly right, while others can be fine with them...

my Reggie had a VERY explosive reaction to being twitched as a 3 year old and he has never been twitched since as his reaction was extremely violent and totally out of character, so, for instance, when he came down with colic a few months ago and needed tubing, i asked the vet to sedate him rather than twitch... however, my other lad had to be twitched in the summer for his vaccine - he had been such a good boy in recent years i didn't think to have his dually to hand, but this time he reacted badly to the male vet (he is fine with female vets!) and kept trying to spin in his stable which was quite hair-raising since he's a fjord-cross tank and it's impossible to hang onto him without a dually in those situations and he could easily have taken out the poor vet in one spin! so i happily let the vet twitch him for literally a few seconds and he was absolutely fine! although he did present his nose to me for a little rub afterwards bless him!

[Deleted]

Well Talin had a gastroscope which had to go up his nose. It's the only thing he's ever objected violently to. He was sedated and it had no effect, every time he felt the tube up his nose he woke up and yanked back. We sedated him more and used a twitch almost straight away because the vet was concerned the more he tried the more Talin was getting angry.

Afterwards when we were dicsussing it the vet said Talin had had enough sedation to knock out most big warmbloods (he's only a 15hh arab!!). It took 2 hours for him to wake up afterwards.

So even if you go for sedation I would make sure you've got a twitch handy as sedation might not work.

[specialized]

Sedation will not work if there is enough adrenalin produced by the horse, especially if the adrenalin is present before the sedation.

[kathrynp]

Suggest you ask to have the blood tests done instead.
Twitching makes swabbing possible in some horses that would have no chance without. As long as it was quick I wouldn't worry.

[calekio]

I have a pony who after numerous visits from vet/dentist has become anti 'stab me with a needle' and anti 'look at my mouth!' in those circumstances i use one with him.. unfortantly.. he also know hates the twitch.. and is well aware of what it is!! I'm actually going to try desenitizing him to him again this year that it can come near you its not going to kill you etc..he had a lot of teething problems, several incisors had to be pulled out and at time i was left having to flush his mouth to keep his clean, once when he had stitches in his gum as well! So you can imagine he has got very weary of anything to do with his mouth, or twitching and i think also now relising a vet with a needle also means something horrible with his mouth.. last time teeth where done he was all over the place, rearing and striking.. he may only be 35" tall... but 35" and built like a tank rearing and boxing at you whilst your trying to sedate it is not fun.. equally.. trying to get a twitch on a pony doing that.. also.. not fun (i can no longer get a twitch on him.. i leave the vets to do it if they need it) twitching works with him in the sense he goes quiet... hopefully now we've got no more issues with teething though i can work quietly and slowly on getting him use to be handling his mouth, other people handling his mouth etc
But i'd still happily allow a twitch to go on any of my ponies for medical reasons... i have some who don't twitch mind you! lol If it done correctly.. hopefully not on for long i don't see a big problem.. better that than a big fight and risking further injury... that said.. i was a bit shocked when another vet practice who looked at my mare coz she had sliced her mouth.. he said the flap of skin had died so he'd cut it off.. i'd expected him to sedate her but no.. he only twitched her to cut off this flap of skin! She is such a good girl she didn't do anything but thinking back maybe i should have insisted he sedate her for something like that as can imagine slicing through flesh must of hurt! Although did only take seconds.

[antares]

Agree with most others on here, I don't like twitches for routine stuff (routine feet trims, mane pulling etc) as I think there are usually other alternatives but we can't train and desensitise to everything and if it is necessary for veterinary or necessary treatments where the handler or practitioner does not feel safe then the twitch would go on.

I would however try and do some sort of training so that if I came across the same problem in the future I would have at least tried to overcome the problem. I used to work with racehorses who were regularly scoped and more than half of them didn't need twitching, none of them needing sedating.