Elizabeth Anderson
Biology Lab 1615
Instructor Galvez
Monday 7pm class
Article summary
Introduction
“Anesthesia in female white-tailed deer using Telazol (R) and xylazine” by Suzan
Murray, Steven L. Monfort, Lisa Ware, William J. McShea, and Mitchell Bush appeared in the
JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE DISEASES Volume: 36 Issue: 4 Pages: 670-675 Published: OCT
2000. This article is based on the research of this team that was used to find a safe, effective,
fast anesthesia treatment for trapped animals that would make their recovery easier.
The research team used female white tail deer that were box trapped and administered
different combinations of Telazol and xylazine, to find a combination that would create an
effective and fast treatment to produce a smooth recovery that would cause less stress to the
trapped animals.
Procedures:
The research team captured 32 female deer and administered one of three doses of
Telazol that was either 75, 100 or 150 mg and one of five doses of xylazine 10, 20 , 30, 40 or 50,
mg.
The researchers monitored the body weight, heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation
and the rectal temperature of each of the 32 deer once they were injected with the Telazol
xylazine combination. The deer were kept in a box trap with net harness where a spring loaded
scale was attached could weigh the deer. Other instruments were used to measure the other vital
signs of each deer.
Elizabeth Anderson
Biology Lab 1615
Instructor Galvez
Monday 7pm class
Some of the deer need a supplemental dose of ketamine HCI to help keep the animals in a
safe grade of anesthesia. The dose of ketamine was 100mg and it was injected intravenous to the
deer.
Results:
The 32 deer that were trapped ended up receiving a mean dose of the Telazol xylazine
combination. The doses had a mean of 2.53 ± 0.16 of the Telazol and 0.69 ± 0.05 of the xylazine.
Eight of these 32 box trapped female white tail deer received the supplemental 100 mg dose of
ketamine. Two of these eight needed a second supplemental dose of ketamine. This dose
provided a safe, fat and effective anesthesia that could be used in short term procedures on the
deer.
The deer were mostly calm before the anesthetic was given and were calm after they
were released back into the box traps. The animals that were alarmed and excited had higher
induction times and require higher doses of the anesthetic combination of Telazol and xylazine.
The article reported that these alarmed deer need twice as much of the anesthetic.
Interpretation:
Telazol in lose doses provided rapid and smooth anesthetic inductions but as they were
increased induction was faster. The researchers found that if Telazol is less than or equal to 4.5
mg/kg it works best to get the fast, safe and effective results to study the deer.
They found they could not find the best dose of xylazine but found the doses from 0.19 to
1.23 mg/kg used in the study didn’t have any adverse effects on the animals. Increased doses of
the xylazine had decreased induction times and prolonged the recovery of the deer.
The need for a supplemental dose of ketamine was related to the initial doses of xylazine.
The deer who received a higher dose of xylazine did not need the dose of ketamine. The
Elizabeth Anderson
Biology Lab 1615
Instructor Galvez
Monday 7pm class
ketamine helped with rapid onset, having a profound effect, a short duration of action and helped
aid in a rapid recovery.
The Telazol: xylazine ratios used were from 1.5:1 to 15:1 and no optimal ratio was
discovered. The dose of 4.4mg/kg of Telazol was the most effective for rapid and smooth
induction with a short recovery for the white tailed deer. There needs to be further research to
determine the optimal dose for xylazine.
Conclusion:
Trapping female white tail led to important research in how to reduce physiological side
effects when administering anesthesia medicine to animals to provide a safe effective and fast
treatment to study the animals at close range.