Approved Anesthetics
| Anesthetics/Tranquilizers/Sedatives | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Administration | Frequency | Concentration | Additional Information |
| Isoflurane | Inhalant | Continual | 3.5-4.5% for induction and 1.5-3.0%for maintenance | Scavenging equipment required |
| Telazol | IM | As needed | 10-20mg/kg | Typically given with Dexdomitor |
| Dexdomitor | IM | As needed | 0.1-0.3 mg/kg | Typically given with Telazol |
| Antisedan | IM | As needed | 0.5-1.5 mg/kg | Reversing agent for Dexdomitor |
Other anesthetics are available upon request
Anesthesia (inhalant)
Isoflurane is the most commonly used inhalant anesthetic used in Hilltop’s facilities. Gas anesthesia is administered as follows:
1. Calibrated ventilators are used to continually administer the anesthetic gas during the procedure. While using this method, technicians must continually monitor the animal’s breathing and response to reflex checks to ensure the animal is at the proper depth of anesthesia. Rapid breathing indicates a shallow plane of anesthesia while slow or interrupted breathing is an indicator of a deep and sometimes dangerous plane of anesthesia. Eye and paw color should also be monitored. It is useful to have ventilation tubes nearby when working with gas anesthetics. Animals receiving too much anesthetic can usually be saved with a few quick breaths into a ventilation tube.
2. Anesthetic chambers such as plastic boxes or bell jars are used for induction of rodents prior to surgical preparation procedures or to perform quick anesthesia of small numbers of animals where the anesthetic is used for chemical restraint. These containers are charged by the use of appropriate inhalant anesthetic agent or pre-charging the containers with the vaporized agent. In both cases, the containers must be allowed to equilibrate for at least 5 minutes prior to placing animals in these containers.
Anesthesia (injectable)
Injectable anesthetics, while not used as frequently as inhaled agents, are useful for specific procedures where inhaled anesthetics cannot be easily administered. Because there is no way to remove or reduce the amount of anesthetic injected, one must be very careful in calculating the correct dosage for each animal based on the animal specie, stock or strain, specific anesthetic agent or combination of agents, any known issues with sensitivity to the agent being used and the route of administration. Since these agents can be administered by various routes, such as intravenous (IV), subcutaneous (SC), intramuscular (IM) or intraperitoneal (IP), technicians will need to be certified to perform injections by the route to be used. Technicians must also monitor animals for the depth of anesthesia as indicated above, and they will also need to be familiar with availability and use and dose of reversal agents that may be needed to counteract these agents in case of an overdose, or if the procedure is complete and one wants the animal to recover more rapidly from anesthesia. The table below includes the inhalant and Injectable anesthetic agents and combinations with available concentrations, doses, duration and routes and frequency of administration used for surgical model preparations.
