Standardization of anesthetic dose for immobilization of captive-bred Red Panda in Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India

The present study was done to get a standard dose of xylazine/ketamine with minimum recovery time. Ten healthy red pandas were anesthetized for the blood collection for their blood biochemistry and hematological studies at the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling. The animals were administered with xylazine/ketamine according to their body weight and recovery time was calculated. We found that immobilization was successful with a low dose of ketamine which was found very low as compared to other authors. The lower anesthetic dose was effective in young animals but there was no relation between age and recovery time. Based on the findings of the present study we can conclude that red pandas between 4-7 kg body weight could be easily immobile with the dose of xylazine/ketamine between 2-5 mg/kg and can be recovered in 25 minutes. The conclusion is completely based on the study of the captive-bred red pandas in the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park. The results of this study may vary from other zoos due to geographical and regional differences.