Zenalpha

RE: Zenalpha

Lizzie Barker — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 12:49:21 GMT

I’m glad you have been able to try it, it’s always challenging to try something new, especially for sedation. Hopefully you are not generally needing to use reversal agents/antagonists and are seeing some of the more tangible cardiovascular differences in terms of heart rate and mucous membrane colour.
Any feedback is always appreciated and please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the tech team if you have any case-specific questions - you are also welcome to message me directly and then contact me via email if you wanted to discuss anything further following the webinar, either regarding the product itself, or cases where it might help you most.

RE: Zenalpha

Beats — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 10:13:38 GMT

Thanks Lizzie for the info, I tried it out on 4 patients this week, and I'm not sure I've found a niche where I would prefer this to plain medetomidine just yet, but I'll watch the webinar and continue to try it out to the end of the bottle and decide.

RE: Zenalpha

Lizzie Barker — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 14:52:56 GMT

Hi, I work for Dechra as the European Anaesthesia lead and I hope I might be able to help.

I know what you mean about it seeming a larger volume and a higher medetomidine dose than we are used to! I would advise that the Zenalpha label dose is used (as you correctly say this is 1.8ml for a 25kg dog). The label dose has been extensively studied and carefully determined to provide the desired intensity and duration of sedation and analgesia for procedures lasting approximately 30 mins.

The label dose is based on body surface area, so there is no universal mcg/kg dose for Zenalpha. Dechra can provide dose charts with the BSA dose converted for body weight to make your life easier.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the dose of medetomidine given alone, compared to when given with vatinoxan (Zenalpha) is not equivalent. This is due to the effect of vatinoxan on pharmacokinetics of medetomidine, vatinoxan increases clearance of medetomidine by reducing vasoconstriction and maintaining cardiac output and better organ blood flow, which means a higher dose of medetomidine is administered.

There is a new Zenalpha and alpha-2 receptor physiology webinar hosted by veterinary anaesthesia specialist, Dr. Tamara Grubb available for free on the Dechra Academy - good for any last minute CPD for this year! Dr Grubb has been using Zenalpha in the US since its launch on the summer and is able to explain a bit more about how Zenalpha works and her clinical experience.

Zenalpha is indicated as a sole agent for sedation and analgesia in dogs. Please contact the Dechra UK Technical Vet team (via the Dechra website or 01939 211200) if you would like to ask any questions, or get advice about use in a specific case.

Please let me know if I can help further, I am always very happy to talk about Zenalpha! And have a lovely Christmas.

Lizzie

RE: Zenalpha

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 23:28:56 GMT

Not sure I see a place.

If it's a planned euthanasia I prefer un-sedated if co-operative. If difficult I give a full dose of medetomidine/butoprphanol/ketamine and my life is made easy.

If used to medetomidine veins no harder than routine. Produces a proper GA so can even go into the heart if a difficult one