Pain Killers And Whiskey
The two types or classes of drugs I use in my equine dental practice are sedatives and analgesics (pain killers). On occasion I use an anxiolytic (removes anxiety) for scared horses. I do not use tranquilizers which is a completely different class and does not provide pain relief. Two of the three drugs I use are controlled substances which requires a DEA license in addition to my veterinary license. In other words, true pain killers can’t be bought and used by non veterinary equine dentists.
When on a date, you have two choices. 1) take the time to build a relationship or 2) get drunk. Automatically sedating a horse without true pain killers is just getting the horse drunk to make the task easier. BUT… if you want to be on the date but you have a whopping headache then you take a pain medication to enjoy the date. This analogy is exactly why I only use pain medication when the horse requires it but I never automatically “sedate” a horse.