https://www.vetsurgeon.org/f/clinical-questions/31296/anaesthetic-protocol-for-guinea-pigs Hi all We have recently been castrating more Guinea Pigs for a rescue. We are doing abdominal castration. Recently we have lost a couple post anaesthesia (more than 2hours after waking up and having had post op feed - one just before collection anden-USTelligent Community 10https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/248255?ContentTypeID=1Fri, 16 Jan 2026 10:54:00 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:c2f3c615-167c-4dba-bbaa-7bbcd5598415Andreas Ege<p>I&#39;ve made good experience with ketamin 40mg/ kg and medetomidine 0.5mg/ kg and local anaesthetic and meloxicam 0.5mg/ kg.&nbsp;</p> <p>Didn&#39;t use opioids anymore in that combination as I found it went along with a much longer recovery time than I liked.</p> <p>Having said that, on a recent CPD I did the more specialised exotics vets there thought the medetomidine dose was too high and going at a lower dose (0.05mg/ kg) and then using buprenorphine (0.05mg/ kg) might be better. Haven&#39;t had a guinea pig anaesthesia since then, though.</p> <p>They also used paracetamol at 10-20mg/ kg and apparently they are not using metoclopramide anymore, as there&#39;s some evidence it is not effective as a gastro-intestinal stimulant (though as far as I can see that&#39;s based on only 1 study performed on healthy rabbits).&nbsp;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>