[Short anesthesia in rats: an injection or an inhalation anesthesia]

First we describe the application of an injection anaesthesia in a specific strain of rats and test its usefulness under practical conditions. Application (i.p.) of the described dose according to the animals body-weight resulted in an acceptable anaesthesia, which lasted approximately 50 minutes in male rats and 80 minutes in female rats. Next we compare the common ether anaesthesia with an other inhalation anaesthesia (Methoxyflurane) which, by using a self-made mask, could be prolonged without any problem for at least 15 minutes ("prolonging-time"). A correlation was found between the duration of the prolonging-time and the awakening time. Inhalation anaesthesia using Methoxyflurane obviously affected the animals health and well-being less than the conventional ether anaesthesia.