Indian Journal of Veterinary Surgery

The onset of analgesia (OAN), duration of analgesia (DAN), sleeping time (SLT) and recovery time (RCT) were determined for 10 healthy domestic short haired cats following administration of either 0.5% diazepam (1 mg/kg, i.m.), 0.5% midazolam (1 mg/kg) or 1% propofol (4 mg/kg, i.v.) in ketamine (20 mg/kg, i.m.) sedated cats. In addition, changes in heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) and rectal temperature (RT) were determined at 10 min intervals over a period of 60 min. In this study, the OAN was longest in the ketamine/propofol (KP) combination (4.6±2.5 min), intermediate in ketamine/diazepam (KD) combination (2.3±0.5 min) and shortest in ketamine/midazolam (KM) combination (1.8±0.8 min). Similarly, the DAN was longest in KP (57.4±5.2 min), shortest in KD (33.8±11.1 min) and intermediate in KM (44.6±10.0 min). Also, the RCT was longest in KP (133.2±25.5 min), intermediate in KD (124.0±43.6 min) and shortest in KM (120.4±42.2 min). However, the HR, RR and RT did not differ significantly (P>0.05) between the three anaesthetic combinations. It was concluded that ketamine/midazolam combination is preferable of the three combinations owing to its shorter onset, longer duration of analgesia and early recovery.