Message Number: YG1383 | New FHL Archives Search
From: poof242@aol.com
Date: 2001-03-17 06:45:00 UTC
Subject: Anesthetics

I personally will never use injectible anesthetics again--especially ket/val.
My ferrets are masked down and maintained with Iso. The masking down takes
about one minute, sometimes less, and I never put them in an induction
chamber because it takes too long and I hate to see them floundering around
for the 5 or 10 minutes it takes. I play "anesthesiologist" for my ferrets'
surgeries (and other animals--I work at an emergency clinic), and of all the
things that have been done to my ferrets from adrenalectomy to nephrectomy to
skin tumor to exploratory, they do not wake up worse for wear on straight
Iso. I've never had one with a reduced heart rate, I've had two that gagged
a little when waking up--nausea or trach tube irritation? I have never fasted
a ferret for surgery, and the two that gagged while waking up never brought
any food or liquid up. I refuse to allow my ferrets to have injectible
pre-an or general anesthesia because they have a very difficult time waking
up (it took Fraidy about 6 hours to get over her ket/val experience), they
seem to get colder during the procedure and take longer in getting warm, they
seem to hallucinate (which can't be much fun for an animal since you can't
explain that it will go away soon), and I don't like watching and trying to
protect the "head bangers". Iso offers none of these things--they wake up
about 5 minutes after removing the gas, they don't bag their heads, they get
warm again quickly, they don't seem to hallucinate, and are usually eating an
hour or so after surgery. If the animal acts a little painful, we give it
either Torb or Morphine, and they do just fine. I have never had to give one
of my ferrets any post-op pain releif--they seem to be very resiliant
animals. Just *my* opinion on injectible anesthetics.