Department of Surgery and Radiology, Bombay Veterinary College, Parel, Mumbai-12 (MS)
Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, Bidar-585 401 (Karnataka)
A total of 12 apparently healthy horses between 2–8 years of age and weighing 150–240 kg were used for standardization of dose of midazolam in combination with xylazine and ketamine anaesthesia in equine gelding. The horses were randomly divided into two groups and were given medazolam intravenously @ 0.06 mg/kg and 0.08 mg/kg body wt in groups I and II, respectively, 10 min before administration of xylazine @ 1 mg/kg and ketamine @ 2 mg/kg. None of the horses of any group went into a state of deep sedation. The quality of sedation was better in group-II as compared to group-I. Two horses of group-II showed paradoxic and hyperaesthic effects. Induction of anesthesia was smooth and fast with induction time in group-I and group-II as 160±13.67 and 148.33±13.27 s, respectively. The surgical anesthesia lasted for 12.33±1.33 and 13.33±1.71 min in group-I and group-II, respectively, with no significant difference between groups. The recovery was smooth and without any incidence and obtained within 69–72 min in both groups. No significant change was noticed in heart rate, respiratory rate and rectal temperature. No significant alterations in haematological and biochemical values were noticed. It was concluded that lower dose of midazolam i.e. 0.06 mg/kg body wt in combination with xylazine-ketamine can be used for short surgical procedures under field condition and suggested to avoid higher dose of midazolam.
