What is Rhino Tranq?
Rhino tranq is a new street drug that combines the opioid fentanyl with the animal sedative/tranquilizer medetomidine.
Tranq vs. Rhino Tranq
Tranq: Another new drug that we’ve also been hearing about has the street name Tranq (pronounced “trank”). It is a combination of fentanyl and xylazine (which is an animal tranquilizer/anesthetic).
Rhino Tranq: The combination of fentanyl and medetomidine—a much stronger type of animal tranquilizer than xylazine. Medetomidine is approximately 100 times stronger and longer lasting than xylazine. Medetomidine is essentially xylazine on steroids.
Sometimes, there are instances of fentanyl that contains both xylazine and medetomidine.
Symptoms of Rhino Tranq (Fentanyl and medeomidine) use:
- Heavy sedation: Sometimes users curl over and fall asleep standing up
- Severe skin wounds or ulcers: (Especially if combined with xylazine).
- Cardiovascular depression: (Severely low blood pressure, low heart rate, and can cause the heart to stop/cardiac arrest). Medetomidine also causes more cardiovascular depression than xylazine. Emergency department doctors have reported seeing patient heart rates as low as 20 beats per minute. Normal heart rate is 60-100 beats per minute.
- Respiratory depression: The fentanyl in rhino tranq causes severe respiratory depression, sometimes causing the person to stop breathing.
When an individual takes the medetomidine-fentanyl combination in ‘rhino tranq’, they are at high risk of both their heart and breathing stopping and and causing a sudden overdose death.
What makes these drugs so dangerous?
Xylazine and medetomidine don’t respond to Narcan—the med that reverses most fentanyl and other opioid overdoses because xylazine and medetomidine are not opioids.
However, it is still recommended to administer Narcan to someone who has used tranq or rhino tranq, as the Narcan does work on the fentanyl that is mixed with xylazine or medetomidine. It also works to reverse the respiratory depression and helps to get a person breathing again.
What should you do if you suspect someone has overdosed and is non-responsive?
Step 1: Administer Narcan, if you have it accessible to you.
See our article on Narcan, which includes steps for how to administer.
Step 2: You may need to start rescue breathing.
Give one breath every 5 seconds.
Step 3: Call 911.
Narcan and rescue breathing are not substitutes for emergency care. It is critical to call 911 as soon as possible if you suspect an overdose.
