Effects of tail fat on induction and recovery of sheep anesthetized with halothane

Abstract

The study used 12 fat-tailed Iranian sheep, which were mask induced with halothane without premedication and maintained under anesthesia for 1 h. Fourteen days later, eight of these sheep were subjected to fat tail amputation using local epidural anesthesia. Finally, 20 days after tail amputation, all 12 sheep were reanesthetized similarly using the same protocol as the first anesthesia. Removal of stored fat in the tail induced a decrease ( P < 0.05) in recovery time and required less halothane consumption during 1 h of general anesthesia. Activity of AST (aspartate aminotransferase) and ALT (alanine aminotransferase) in blood increased ( P < 0.05) during the first 48 h after recovery in sheep with fat tail compared with sheep without fat tail. In this study fat tail sheep were used as animal model of human obesity. It was concluded that stored fat in fat tail sheep increased recovery time from anesthesia and increased halothane uptake during the anesthetic maintenance period. Therefore precautions should be taken when anesthetizing fat tail sheep.