Evaluation of anaesthetic and analgesic effects of ketamine-diazepam and ketamine-xylazine for chemical restraint in grower pigs undergoing surgical castration.

Abstract

Pain response during pig handling is aggravated due to difficulty in restraining them for surgical procedure and thus gives rise to more welfare concerns. This study evaluated the comparative advantage of either combination of ketamine/xylazine (KX) or Ketamine/diazepam (KD) for surgical castration in pigs. Ten client-owned grower pigs, scheduled for orchidectomy were randomly assigned to two treatment groups containing five pigs were used for the study. Group 1 were anaesthetized with simultaneous intramuscular injection of 0.3 mg/kg diazepam and 10 mg/kg ketamine while group 2 were simultaneously injected with 2mg/kg Xylazine and 10 mg/kg ketamine, intramuscularly. Orchidectomy was thereafter performed on each pig using standard procedures. Cardiopulmonary parameters and anaesthetic indices were measured before and after anaesthetic induction. Castration was successfully done in all the grower pigs and the recovery from anaesthesia was uneventful. There was no significant change in all the cardiopulmonary parameters measured throughout the procedure. Also there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in respiratory rate, heart rate and body temperature between the two groups. There was faster but insignificant(p=0.15) loss of righting reflex in pigs in group KX compared to KD group. Also, the induction time, time of standing and duration of surgery was faster in KX group than KD group although not statistically significant. Following skin incision, all the pigs in the KD and non in KX group were found to require subcutaneous lidocaine inflitration. Ketamine-Xylazine combination provided better anaesthesia and analgesia sufficient for a 30 minutes surgical procedure like castration in grower pigs.