Anesthesia in the Richardson's ground squirrel: comparison of ketamine, ketamine and xylazine, droperidol and fentanyl, and sodium pentobarbital.
A combination of ketamine and xylazine (88.9 mg of ketamine/ml and 11.1 mg of xylazine/ml) given IM (85.5 +/- 3.4 mg of ketamine/kg of body weight and 10.6 +/- 0.5 mg of xylazine/kg) or subcutaneously (85.6 +/- 4.0 mg of ketamine/kg and 10.7 +/- 0.7 mg of xylazine/kg) induced effective surgical anesthesia for 20 to 30 minutes in Richardson's ground squirrels. Use of ketamine alone (86 +/- 7 mg/kg, IM), a droperidol and fentanyl combination (2.6 +/- 0.4 mg of droperidol/kg and 52 +/- 8 micrograms of fentanyl/kg, IM), or sodium pentobarbital (50 +/- 2 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) did not induce surgical anesthesia, but did induce depressed respiratory rates in the squirrels.
D000758:Anesthesia / Q000662:veterinary*; D000818:Animals; D004329:Droperidol; D004338:Drug Combinations; D005260:Female; D005283:Fentanyl; D007649:Ketamine; D010424:Pentobarbital; D012589:Sciuridae / Q000502:physiology*; D014991:Xylazine
D004338:Drug Combinations; D014991:Xylazine; D007649:Ketamine; D010424:Pentobarbital; D004329:Droperidol; D005283:Fentanyl