A waste gas scavenging system should be used to minimize exposure to personnel. Injectable anesthetics can serve as the sole anesthetic agent, be used to induce anesthesia before inhalation anesthesia, or supplement regional anesthesia. They induce a dose-dependent spectrum of CNS depression, from sleep to deep general anesthesia. Higher doses may cause medullary paralysis, respiratory arrest and death. Dissociative drugs induce anesthesia, have short duration of action, a wide safety margin, and cause minimal cardiopulmonary depression.
Muscle relaxants are predominantly central or peripheral acting.
The peripheral acting muscle relaxants are devoid of sedative and analgesic properties. These drugs, when used during surgery, must be administered only in conjunction with general anesthetics. Local and Regional Anesthesia Local and regional anesthesia is used most often in large animals, such as horses, cattle or sheep. Analgesic drugs Analgesic drugs to reduce pain are initiated during the surgical period and continued well into the postoperative recovery period. It is often erroneously presumed that an animal is not in pain, when there is no obvious change in behavior.