Laboratory use of CI-744, a cataleptoid anesthetic, in sheep
Conner, G.H.; Coppock, R.W.; Beck, C.C.
Veterinary Medicine-Small Animal Clinician 69(4): 479-482
1974
ISSN/ISBN: 0042-4889 PMID: 4493268 Document Number: 73488
Eighty laboratory sheep were anaesthetized with CI-744, a drug composed of equal parts of tiletamine hydrochloride and zolazepan (a non-phenothiazine, diazepinone tranquillizer). Induction was smooth, with loss of righting ability occurring within 15 to 30 seconds after i/v injection. Surgical anaesthesia was attained within 0.5 to 4.8 minutes after the injection. The mean initial dose of CI-744 was 11.9 mg/kg. In 41 of the sheep, this dosage produced surgical anaesthesia for a mean duration of 2.5 h. Thirty-nine sheep given maintenance doses (up to nearly one-half the initial dose) of CI-744 were surgically anaesthetized for a mean duration of 3.5 h. Surgical procedures included celiotomies for foetal cannulation or vaccination and various abdominal operations. The mean recovery time was 5.6 h for those receiving a single dose and 7.8 h for those receiving maintenance doses. The anaesthetic was judged desirable for the surgical procedures in all but one sheep. There were no anaesthetic deaths.