The Fight Over a Drug That Is Great for Horses but Horrific for Humans

NYT HEALTH: The Fight Over a Drug That Is Great for Horses but Horrific for Humans
By Jan Hoffman
Section: Health
Source: New York Times
Published Date: April 20, 2023 at 03:00AM

Drug dealers are mixing xylazine, an animal tranquilizer relied on by veterinarians, into fentanyl, with deadly results. But controlling it is tricky.

Penny, a 3-year-old sorrel mare with a white blaze, had been slobbering her feed and fighting her bit, signs of a likely toothache. An exam confirmed that she needed two wolf teeth extracted and the sharp edges of some molars ground down, procedures that required propping her jaws open with a speculum. To protect Penny from pain, and protect himself from the kick of a horse who outweighed him tenfold, Boyd Spratling, Penny’s veterinarian, gave her a shot of xylazine, a common animal tranquilizer. Within moments, her long neck drooped and her eyelids fluttered at half-mast. Forty-five minutes later, dental surgery done, Penny sauntered out of the clinic in rural Nevada and into her trailer. To Dr. Spratling, xylazine is a vital analgesic and sedative, which he also occasionally uses in cattle, for procedures like C-sections in cows and penile injury repairs in bulls. It’s a staple for zoo veterinarians, too. But in the last few years, the drug has also turned into something else: a cheap, addictive adulterant to illicit fentanyl that is contributing to the rise in overdose deaths around the country. The xylazine-fentanyl combo, known in the drug trade as “tranq dope,” is a life-threatening mix that depresses breathing, heart rate and blood pressure, and can cause blackened, chemical burn-like flesh wounds that can lead to amputation.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/health/xylazine-tranq-animals.html