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Pentobarbitone as an anaesthetic agent in the Adelie penguin Pygoscelis adeliae
Author(s) -
ANDREWS C. J. H.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
journal of small animal practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1748-5827
pISSN - 0022-4510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-5827.1975.tb05777.x
Subject(s) - pygoscelis , medicine , anesthesia , general anaesthesia , sodium , pentobarbital , local anaesthetic , biology , ecology , chemistry , foraging , organic chemistry
Thirty‐two Adelie penguins were injected with sodium pentobarbitone (May & Baker). In twenty‐two the intraperitoneal (IP) route alone was used and in ten both the IP and intravenous (IV) routes. The average time until the onset of surgical anaesthesia was 130 min (45‐220). Four penguins died whilst under anaesthetic for unknown reasons and one from blood loss, the remaining twenty‐seven survived for periods up to 13 hours and were electively killed. It is suggested that the variation in the anaesthetic induction period is due to the variation in the body fat content. One bird was left to recover and was immobile for 78 hours. In the penguin, barbiturates are presumably metabolized very slowly. Sodium pentobarbitone (50 mg kg ‐1 ) is recommended as an anaesthetic agent for deep surgical anaesthesia, provided that it is a nonsurvival procedure, and rapid induction is not necessary.