THE USE OF KETAMINE AS A PRIMARY IMMOBILIZING AGENT IN GORILLAS (Gorilla gorilla)

摘要

Effective, safe, efficient induction of anesthesia is a common goal for clinicians handling free-ranging or captive gorillas (Gorilla gorilla). For many years, prior to development of other agents, the drug phencyclidine was the standard. This was followed by ketamine, then tiletamine-zolazepam, and then the combination medetomidine-ketamine. There is a paucity of literature detailing anesthetic regimens in gorillas and the few studies that have been published are recent. No published compilation ofdata regarding the use of ketamine in gorillas is available. In February 1999,19 gorillas were moved to the new Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit at the Bronx Zoo. All animals, except for three animals less than 2 yr old, were chemically immobilized for relocation. Although tiletamine-zolazapam had previously been used frequently for gorilla immobilizations at the Bronx Zoo, ketamine HC1 was selected as the primary immobilizing agent to accomplish the moves. The data presented includes all immobilizations inwhich ketamine was used for induction or as the sole anesthetic agent for gorillas at the Bronx Zoo for these relocations and for other procedures over a period of 9 yr.