Yes, that is the best advise, as the wise Dr. Bob Paddleford once told me
(and he wrote a book on vet anthesthesia)  "I use this combination of drugs
cause I know how they work and if something goes wrong I know how to deal
with it."
 
I too have seen bad reations with all forms of anthesthesia.  As far as Iso
goes, it has a real excitement phase during induction so much so that at our
clinic we are trying not to use it for this use but we do use it as a
maintaince drug after intubation.  We have had very good luck using Telazol.
The induction is fast and the recovery is not as shaky as ket/ace.  We do a
number of pediatric spays and castrations; 6 week old kittens are smaller
than most ferrets and we have not lost one to drug overdose in over a year.
 
As for Ketamine: Yes it is an dissociative agent, which means it kinda
rewires the brain so although pain may occur and stimulus may be transmitted
to the brain, it is not understood as painful.  understand?  Good you know
more than most vets. !!  Ketamine actually was used very commonly and
probably still is used in Human medicine.  Now they have even better
dissociatives in human medicine, but they work faster than what we can use.
The biggest use for ketamine now is RECREATION!  Yes, our 14-20 yr. old
children are stealing ketamine or Special K as it is known on the street,
and dehydrating it and smoking it.  Interestingly enough when they asked
people what they remembered about recovery from ketamine the common responce
(> 35%) was they saw.... BIG WHITE MICE.  now what can these kids find so
exciting about Big WHITE MICE>?  well anyway, more animals to save.
 
--Dr. Ben, the TOucan VEt
 
Dr. Benjamin A. Otten, DVM
Windham Veterinary Clinic
Brattleboro, VT 05301
(802) 254-9412
[Posted in FML issue 2363]