Comparison of intraosseous and intramuscular administration of ketamin for induction of anaesthesia in domestic pigeons

Objectives: It is common for veterinarians who species to be presented with pet bird patients for procedures that require general anesthesia, including complete physical examination , or medical and surgical treatments. The choice of anaesthesia and route of administration is often as important as the surgical procedure itself. General anaesthesia in avian maybe produced by administration of either inhalant or parental injectable agent. Injectable anaesthetic and sedative can be placed in vein, muscle or intraosseous. Several injectable drugs were used in birds, one of them is ketamine that used for general anaesthesia.Materials Methods: 20 healthy mature pigeons were included into the study. The birds were allocated into two groups as group I and II. Pigeons in group I received 20 mg/kg ketamine by intraosseous route and birds in group II received intramuscular ketamine with the same dose.Heart rate, respiratory rate and cloacal temperature were measured before (0 min) and 15, 30, 45 and60 min after anaesthetic drug administration. Clinical and anaesthetic effects of the ketamine used in different route were assessed.Results conclusion: Statistical assessment performed between the groups revealed that RR in IM group was higher than in IO .there was a decrease for HR for both groups. No significant alterations were recorded for CT (cloacal temperature) during the anaesthesia for both groups. The anaesthetic effect of the ketamine started 0.5 – 1 min after injection for Group I and 1-3 minfor Group II. The recovery time didn’t have any significant difference in 2 groups. Intraosseous and intramuscular ketamine administration resulted in a satisfactory anaesthesia in pigeons. However, intraosseous drug administration provided a more rapid and effective anaesthesia and might be useful for the birds requiring urgent anaesthesia.