Anesthetic Potency of Ketamine in Caspian Terrapin, Freshwater Soft Shell Tortoise and Rat Snake Collected from Bahar Al Najaf District, Al-Najaf Province

The study was carried out during April 2012. Twelve Caspian terrapins,twelve freshwater soft-shell turtlesand 6 rat snakes were collected from Baher Al-Najaf by professional reptiles collectors from Al-Rafidinassociation for hunting and environment protection, the present study include 3 separated experiments . Theterrapins placed in 6 glass aquariums (couple per aquariums) the maintenance conditions controlled afteradaptation for one week, all terrapins distributed equally into 3 groups. The animals of group 1, 2 and 3 wereinjected intramuscularly with 40,60 and 80 mg ketamine .The anesthetic levels were assessed. Freshwatersoft-shell turtles experiment, this experiment was same to previous experiment. The rat snakes placed in 2plastic containers distributed into 2 groups, the maintenance conditions .The snake of 1.2-and3 group wereinjected with 40, 60 and 80 mg/kg intramuscularly. The anesthetic levels were assessed. We note in Table 1that when ketamine was injected at a dose of 40, 60 and 80 mg/kg of body weight, the minimum onset timefor doses was (15,7,5), while the most time was (17, 10, 5) respectively. While we noticed the minimuma loss of the right reflex, deep anesthesia, recovery right reflex and completed recovery was (21,12,8),(47,58,76), (87,120,140) and (18,24,64) . We note in Table 3 that when ketamine was injected at a dose of40, 60 and 80 mg/kg of body weight, the minimum onset time for doses was (4,4,3), while the most time was(12, 5, 5) respectively. While we noticed the minimum a loss of the right reflex, deep anesthesia, recoveryright reflex and completed recovery was (8,4,5), (50,40,74),(290,260,290) and (62,70,70) .Therefore, thebest dose is 80 mg/kg for Caspian terrapin, while for freshwater soft shell tortoise it is 80 mg/kg. As for ratsnake, the ketamine dose of 80 mg/kg of body weight was the best according to the study.