The Use of Ketamine Hydrochloride as an Anesthetic for Raccoons

Abstract

Ketamine hydrochloride was observed to be an effective anesthetic for recently captured raccoons (Procyon lotor) when they were injected intramuscularly with 20-29 mg/kg body weight. Excellent anesthesia occurred from 5 to 15 min after injection. No respiratory difficulties were encountered. The only undesirable clinical sign was excessive salivation.

Chemical Immobilization of Raccoons (Procyon Lotor) With Ketamine-Medetomidine Mixture and Reversal With Atipamezole

“…We did not observe any side effects of ketamine immobilization such as convulsions, muscle rigidity, or excessive salivation during processing. Induction times were similar to those observed in previous studies where ketamine was used alone (Gregg and Olson, 1975;Norment et al, 1994). Although both ketamine and the K:M mixture appear to have slightly longer induction times than those observed previously with other anesthetics, it is unclear whether this is due to the drugs used, animal condition, trapping method, or trapping time, as these factors greatly differed among studies (Norment et al, 1994;Belant, 2004).…”

“…Several drugs have been used for immobilization of raccoons including ketamine (Gregg and Olson, 1975;Beck, 1976;Norment et al, 1994), succinylcholine chloride (Hoilien and Oates, 1981), saffan (Clutton and Duggan, 1986) and tiletamine-zolazepam (Pitt et al, 2006). The use of tiletamine-zolazepam mixture leads to an uncommon side effect that affected raccoon behavior (Pitt et al, 2006), leading them to frequently approach researchers during recovery; this can be problematic as raccoons may carry rabies (McLean, 1975).…”

Ectoparasites of Nasua nasua (Carnivora, Procyonidae) from an urban forest in Southeastern Brazil

“…Among the fleas, C. felis felis was the most prevalent and abundant species, giving a sex ratio female: male of 4.4:1 (Tab.-1). This species was indicated as the most prevalent in Procyonidae (Labate et al 2001). In the USA this species was also reported as the most prevalent in raccoons (Whitaker and Goff, 1979).…”

“…Amblyomma ovale (Koch, 1844), Amblyomma cajennense (Fabricius, 1787) and Amblyomma parvum (Aragão, 1908) were reported on coati from Brazil (Aragão and Fonseca, 1961;Figueiredo et al 1999;Labate et al, 2001) and Amblyomma collebs was obtained from a captive coati (Labate et al, 2001). No adult ticks were collected on coatis in this study.…”

“…From March 2002 to September 2004, 15 N. nasua (11 adult females, 2 young females and 2 young males) were trapped with a tomahawk-like trap baited with banana and papaya in an urban forest in Juiz de Fora County they were examined for ectoparasites after anesthetizing with xylazine and ketamine (10mg/kg and 20mg/kg of body weight, respectively) (Gregg and Olson, 1975;Rodrigues et al, 1996). Other four road-killed animals (adult males) on the street around the forest were also immediatly studied.…”