Cardiovascular and Respiratory Effects of Romifidine and/or Xylazine in Ketamine Anaesthesia in Dog: An Experimental Study

Objective: To compare romifidine and xylazine premedication in ketamine anesthesia of the dog. Design: Experimental design. Animals: Fifteen cross-breed dogs. Procedures: Animals randomly allocated into three groups of five. Group G1 premedicated by xylazine 1 mg/kg, G2 romifidine 40 µg/ kg and G3 romifidine 80 µg/ kg intramuscularly. All animals premedicated with atropine 0.02 mg/kg subcutaneously ten minutes before induction of anesthesia. Anesthesia was induced by 15 mg/kg ketamine IM. Heart rate, respiratory rate, mean arterial blood pressure and eclectrocardiac activity beside quality of anesthesia were evaluated. Results: No significant differences were found between three groups around all recorded parameters.   Conclusions and Clinical relevance: Usage of different doses of romifidine in canine species is possible without any unexpected outcome, 80 µg/ kg of romifidine make better onset of anesthesia.