Evaluation of oral Clonidine effects on anesthesia induced by intramuscular injection of Ketamine Hydrochloride in New Zealand White Rabbits

Ketamine is one of the most common drugs for anesthesia induction, but it often can’t provide a decent anesthesia and it is often combined with sedative and muscle relaxants such as benzodiazepines, opioids or alpha 2 agonists. Alpha 2 agonists have been used in veterinary medicine for a long time as anesthesia premedication; Even so, there are few studies on Clonidine as an anesthetic premedication in rabbits. Clonidine is an alpha 2 agonist drug mainly used to treat high blood pressure in humans, recently though number of studies have shown that this drug has a great analgesic, sedative and anesthetic drug sparing effects. We conducted this study, in order to evaluate Clonidine effects on anesthesia caused by intra-muscular injection of ketamine in rabbits. Seven New Zealand white rabbits were anesthetized by using intra muscular injection of ketamine as the control group, after two weeks for ketamine complete clearance, the same group received 0.5 mg/kg of oral Clonidine 30 minutes prior to ketamine injection as the experimental group. Pedal, palpebral and righting reflexes and vital signs, such as heart rate, respiratory rate, SPO2 and rectal temperature of both groups were observed and documented in order to evaluate the quality of anesthesia. Results showed, administration of 0.5 mg/kg oral Clonidine 30 minutes prior to ketamine injection, provides deep and prolonged anesthesia and reduces heart rate but fails to produce proper analgesia.