animals Article Methadone or Butorphanol as Pre-Anaesthetic Agents Combined with Romifidine in Horses Undergoing Elective Surgery: Qualitative Assessment of Sedation and Induction Sara Nannarone 1,* , Giacomo Giannettoni 2 , Chiara Laurenza 3, Andrea Giontella 1 and Giulia Moretti 1 1 Department of Veterinary Medicine, Perugia University, Via San Costanzo 4, 06126 Perugia, Italy;
[email protected] (A.G.);
[email protected] (G.M.) 2 ADVETIA Centre Hospitalier Vétérinaire, Vélizy-Villacoublay, Île-de-France, 78140 Paris, France;
[email protected] 3 Section of Anesthésiologie, Université de Lyon, VetAgro Sup, Marcy l’Etoile, 69280 Lyon, France;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +39-075-585-7715 Simple Summary: When considering sedation or general anaesthesia in horses, a multimodal strat- egy is commonly preferred over a single drug. This includes the association of alpha-2 adrenoceptor agonists, phenothiazines or opioids, to improve the overall sedative and analgesic effects accordingly. However, the use of opioids alone is limited in horses due to the risk of sympathetic stimulation, central nervous system stimulation, excitement and head jerking. In some countries, butorphanol Citation: Nannarone, S.; Giannettoni, is currently the only licensed and most used opioid in equine medicine. We aimed to evaluate the G.; Laurenza, C.; Giontella, A.; pre-anaesthetic association of romifidine with either butorphanol or methadone. The two combi- Moretti, G. Methadone or nations