I asked my vet to prescribe a sedative for this use. He said that Acepromazine would be what he would prescribe, but that before he did so he would like me to test the dogs for the mdr1 gene mutation.
I then came back to the boards and read this thread , wherein I learned that a border collie is very unlikely to have the mdr1 mutation. But the thread only says that normal doses of heartworm preventatives are okay; it does not address the effects of Ace at the dosage I'm asking for. My vet's point was that it would be better to do the test and know for sure that the dogs (whose pedigrees I do not know) did not have the mutation. I suppose so, but I can't really tell from the above thread whether I could safely skip the test and administer Ace.
Then I searched the boards for "Acepromazine" and found this thread , which says not ever to use Ace for noise phobias. This I understand and agree with, but I'm not talking about a noise phobia. I only want to have a way to suppress the dog's ability to struggle in the unlikely event I should have to singlehandedly deal with quill removal in a remote setting.
My vet was fairly skeptical about using Ace for this purpose anyway. He thought I'd be better off to muzzle and hogtie the dog, should it come to that.
I guess I'm asking two questions here:
1. Should I test for the mdr1 mutation?
2. What is the best way to be prepared for quill removal?
FWIW, I know that one of my dogs has already had Ace in a pre-surgery cocktail without an adverse reaction.
Also, I have a fair bit of experience with quill removal in a variety of dogs and a variety of settings, but almost always where help was available and a vet not more than a day away. Also, my older dog normally behaves quite responsibly around porcupines, which we encounter often. I just want to be prepared should the unlikely occur (which does seem to happen with disheartening regularity in our active lives
