Anaesthesia in the pregnant guinea pig.

A method for anaesthetising pregnant guinea pigs is described which makes one hour available for abdominal surgery and subsequent recovery; it uses a combination of fentanyl, fluanisone and diazepam with atropine, prednisolone and glucose saline. Provided anaesthesia was performed no later than the 48th day of gestation, 85 per cent of pregnancies continued to term and 74 per cent of the pups survived the first 24 hours after birth.