https://www.vetsurgeon.org/f/clinical-questions/29037/premedication-in-rabbits-prior-to-alfaxalone-induction Dear all. In my experience, the best combination of premed drugs for healthy rabbits that undergo elective surgery is: medetomidine 100ug/kg and buprenorphine 0.05mg/kg IV. The induction I use is alfaxalone 4mg/kg IV. This pre-medication appears to been-USTelligent Community 10https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/221989?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 22 Apr 2020 15:26:07 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:7608b12c-384d-4fe4-b84f-0977b55ed8f3Gwen Covey-Crump<p>Advice sought via my colleagues - we&nbsp;would recommend IM sedation-induction with medetomidine 0.1-0.25mg/kg and ketamine 10-15mg/kg to intubate. If intubation takes a while give a little&nbsp;volatile anaesthetic by facemask to deepen the plane. A mistake is to give an induction agent here as experience suggests they usually become apnoeic and then nearly impossible to intubate. Some colleagues are using IM medetomidine-midazolam with propofol IV induction v slowly to avoid apnoea. I have no experience of using alfaxalone in this species. The reliance on the rabbit breathing to guide intubation makes ketamine ideal. I would add buprenorphine at some point for analgesia.</p> <p>We like ketamine because it stimulates the laryngeal adductors to open the larynx, in cats (Nishino et al.&nbsp;1982, Anesthesiology) and rabbits (Rothstein, et al. 1983, J Ap Phys) and this sympathetic stimulation is in relation to the normal respiratory cycle. However, Grint &amp; Murison (2008, Vet Anaesth Analg) found 3 of 25 rabbits anaesthetized even with high doses - ket 15mg/kg and medetomidine 0.25mg/kg developed laryngospasm and were impossible to intubate. The author (N. Grint) was very practised in intubating rabbits yet some still developed laryngospasm. Laryngospasm is a separate mechanism to ketamine-induced laryngeal adductor muscle activity. Other authors have added buprenorphine to the ket/medetomidine IM combination.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>