Anesthesia Of Exotic Animals

Limited access to a number of patients and wide variety in species of exotic animals require special instrumentation, routes of drug administration, techniques, and pharmacology to perform a safe anesthesia. Drug application of air-activated darts with a blow pipe is the most commonly used remote delivery system in zoo work. Immobilization is mostly performed with drug combinations of opioids, cyclohexamines alpha2-adrenergic agonists, and neuroleptics. Anesthesia may be maintained by the inhalant anesthetics halothane or isoflurane administered with portable precision-calibrated vaporizers. Induction is performed with various designs and sizes of face masks, induction chambers, or endotracheal tubes. Minimal monitoring equipment includes thermometers to assess rectal body temperature and a pulse oximeter. Medical emergencies in anesthetized exotic animals mostly result from cardiovascular and respiratory dysfunction as well as special conditions like bloat, vomiting and aspiration, and various life-threatening syndromes known as capture myopathy.