Chemical sedation and anesthesia are integral parts of veterinary medicine in the zoo setting. Even the most basic clinical examinations require sedation or anesthesia, since most patients in the zoo are either too nervous, too fast or too dangerous …

Strictly speaking, exotic animal medicine encompasses all zoo animals, wildlife, and nondomestic pets,1 and the modalities of treatment for zoo animals and wildlife are nearly identical. This of course includes physical as well as chemical immobiliza …

While there are inherent risks to deep sedation over general anesthesia in veterinary medicine,1 it is generally accepted that sedation carries less risks compared to general anesthesia in most cases. “While no clear statistics exist regarding the mo …

Veterinarians are regularly called upon to anesthetize a wide variety of exotic animals. For the purposes of this discussion, exotic animals are those non-domesticated species that are encountered in the field, in a zoo setting or those which have fo …

General anaesthetics and/or sedatives can take a number of hours to wear off and in some cases can cause patients to appear drowsy for more than a day. General anesthetic in healthy animals pose little risk, however, morbidity due to anesthesia does …

The use and study of wild animals frequently involves physical handling and in some instances the performance of surgical or other stressful procedures. With few exceptions, the requirements for domestic species are typically those of pain relief and …

Historically, the pharmacological immobilization of wild animals can be traced back to certain South American tribes who used curare-coated arrows to take down prey animals. Curare is an alkoloidal neurotoxin and muscle relaxant that competes with ac …

The broad term “anesthesia” typically covers simple immobilization and recovery via heavy sedation as well as general anesthesia, despite these two modalities being distinctly different. The latter involves central nervous system depression resulting …

Performing general anesthesia in the field can be impractical as well as stressful for wildlife managers, veterinarians and their support staff; even under ideal conditions, it can cause morbidity and mortality in animals.1 Thus, immobilization proto …