You should seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.

Acetylpromazine (or acepromazine) can be a useful sedative/tranquilizer to use in old animals - but there a number of considerations that should be taken into account, and a low dose should be given.

Acetylpromazine (ACP) has some important effects which should be borne in mind before it is used in old animals :

• Intravenous injection of ACP can cause a precipitous drop in blood pressure (hypotension) which can be life-threatening in some patients - particularly hypovolaemic or dehydrated patients, and may contribute to the development of reduced renal blood flow and tubular ischaemia in some animals.  
• The datasheet warns that care is needed if it is to be used in animals with renal impairment.
• The datasheet warns that care is needed if it is to be used in large breed dogs
• ACP lowers the threshold for seizures so it should not be used in epileptics, or prior to procedures that might precipitate seizures -such as myelography
• ACP desensitises the myocardium to catecholamines and this could play a part in decompensating an animal which is maintaining cardiac output in the presence of congestive heart failure, because increased sympathetic tone is an important part of the homeostatic mechanisms involved in maintaining cardiac output 
• Prolonged recovery may occur if the patient has impaired liver function because ACP is metabolised by the liver.
• Side-effects include hypothermia - which may be of importance in geriatric animals kept in cold environments.

For these reasons the dose of ACP should be reduced if it is administered to an old animal (eg 0.25mg/kg body weight rather than 3.0mg/kg by mouth - which is the suggested range of doses for pre-anaesthetic medication in dogs and cats. In addition, pre-administration screening should be performed prior to it's choice for use. In particular risk factors for acute kidney injury - renal failure (eg subclinical renal disease) should be ruled out. 

Updated January 2016