A comparison of ketamine and the combination ketamine-xylazine for effective surgical anesthesia in the rabbit.

Ketamine alone and the combination ketamine-xylazine were evaluated as surgical anesthetics in rabbits. It was found that ketamine alone provided inadequate analgesia for ventral abdominal incisions or exposure of the femur. The combination of xylazine with ketamine did provide adequate enalgesia for both surgical procedures.