Anesthesia.

Anesthetic agents are used in laboratory animals to prevent pain or distress due to an experimental procedure or for restraint to facilitate a technically difficult procedure. This unit provides three basic protocols: injectable anesthesia for mouse, rat, and hamster; inhalant anesthesia using methoxyflurane for mouse, rat, and hamster; and injectable anesthesia using ketamine/xylazine for rabbit. An Alternate Protocol describes sedation using butorphanol/acetylpromazine in the rabbit. The Commentary further describes and compares these methods of anesthesia for various applications.