need help concerning anaesthesia in in vivo experiment

[Jaimie Polson]

In <morin.13.00118B83 at neuromotri.u-bordeaux.fr> morin at neuromotri.u-bordeaux.fr (Didier Morin) writes:

>I worry about my in vivo experiments on the rabbit. The anaesthesia that I use
>(pentobarbital) induces an inhibition of locomotor activities during 6 hours. 
>However,  the time surgery lasts up to 4 hours. Then, I need to reduce the time
>effect of the anaesthesia. Could anyone know an other anaesthetic (except 
>halothane, fluothane or any that kind of anaesthetics) able to satisfy my 
>experimental conditions?
>Thank you in advance,

>Agnes Bonnot

>E-mail : morin at neuromotri.u-bordeaux.fr


Well I use Saffan (steroid anaesthetic, mixture of alphadolone and alfaxalone)
on rabbits and find it excellent. The animals wake from anaesthesia very
quickly: 15-20min. Saffan has a plasma half life of approx 7 min. It is
much more expensive than pentobarbital. It needs to be given under continuous
iv infusion.

Another possibility that I have ot tried is propofol. I don't know much
about it, but it is injectable (I believe continuous infusion). It also
is expensive.

email me if you want to know my protocol using Saffan.

best wishes
Jaimie Polson
jaimiep at physiol.su.oz.au