Anaesthetic Evaluation of Ketamine/Propofol in Acepromazine-Xylazine Premedicated Horses*

The study was conducted in twelve clinical cases of horses for diagnostic and surgical procedures warranting general anaesthesia were randomly divided into two groups, group I and group II, each consisting of six cases. Xylazine @ 0.50mg/kg and acepromazine @ 0.03mg/kg body weight was used as pre-anaesthetic in both the groups. Ketamine @ 2.20 mg/kg body weight and 0.50mg/kg/min was used as induction and maintenance agent in group I and Propofol 2.0 mg/kg body weight and 0.15mg/kg/min was used as induction and maintenance agent in group II. The mean time for sedation in group I and group II were 5.16±0.30 minutes and 5.10±0.21 minutes respectively. The mean quality of sedation in group I and group II were 2.27 ±0.21 minutes and 2.67 ± 0.21 minutes respectively and the mean time for induction was 1.83± 0.17 minutes and 1.17 ±0.17 minutes respectively. The induction was smooth in all horses (100%) in group II. In group I smooth induction was observed in 83.33% and rough induction in 16.67% of the cases. The total dose of xylazine administered including the incremental doses in group I was 1.00 ± 0.00 mg/kg/hr where as in group II xylazine incremental dose was not administered. The calculated dose was 6.52 ± 0.13mg/kg/hr in group I and 11.86± 0.533 mg/kg/hr in group II. The score for the quality of muscle relaxation was 2.50± 0.22 and 2.33 ±0.21 in group I and group II respectively. The score for reflex status in group I and group II were 1.00± 0.36and 0.67±0.31 respectively. The mean time for recovery in group I and group II were 32.00±2.87 minutes and 14.00±1.05 minutes respectively. The quality of recovery was smooth in 66.66% of group I and 83.33% of group II. The quality of recovery was rough in 33.34% of group I and 16.67% of group II. The number of attempts for unassisted standing was 4.67± 0.21times in group I and 1.50± 0.22 times in group II. None of the animals in any groups showed any intra and post operative complication.