Selected anaesthetic indices of the intramuscular administration of
diazepam 5mg/kg followed 10 min later by ketamine 60mg/kg, with
pentazocine 10mg/kg (D-K-P) or without pentazocine (D-K) as control,
were evaluated in five healthy rabbits that were not undergoing any
clinical procedure. Heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) and rectal
temperature (RT) of the anaesthetized rabbits were also determined over
the initial 60-min period.Time to loss of the righting reflex with the
D-K-P (1.9 ± 0.6 min) was similar to the control value of 2.0
± 0.0 min. Whereas D-K lacked analgesic activity, the onset and
duration of analgesia with the D-K-P were respectively 3.6 ± 1.4
min and 95.0 ± 10.6 min. Recumbency time with the D-K-P (128.6
± 9.3 min) was significantly (P < 0.05) shorter than the
control value of 184 ± 3.3 min. Time to standing with the D-K-P
(17.4 ± 1.6 min ) was also significantly shorter than the control
value of 42.0 ± 1.4 min. Mean HR with the D-K-P ranged between
140.8 ± 16.1 and 166.4 ± 19.9 beats/ min and were below the
control range of 188.6 ± 6.4 and 201.0 ± 3.1 beats/min. Range
of mean RR with the D-K-P (34.4 ± 3.1 to 68.0 ± 10.7)
breaths/ min was below the control range of 71.4 ± 6.9 and 121.2
± 12.6 breaths/min. Mean RT with the D-K-P ranged between 38.0
± 0.4 and 39.9 ± 0.5°C and were similar to the control
range of 39.9 ± 0.1° C.It was concluded that the
intramuscular administration of D-K-P at the dose rates employed in
this study provided satisfactory immobility, analgesia and muscle
relaxation of long duration, albeit with some clinically insignificant
degree of cardiorespiratory depression, in healthy rabbits
