How to anesthetize a hippo

Science Daily reports that progress has been made on the problem of how to anesthetize a hippopotamus:

for a variety of reasons it has proven difficult to anaesthetize hippopotamuses. The thick skin and the dense subcutaneous tissue make it difficult to introduce sufficient amounts of anesthetics and opioid-based anesthetics often cause breathing irregularities and occasionally even death. In addition, the level of anesthesia is only rarely sufficient to enable surgery to be undertaken: few vets wish to be around when a drugged hippopotamus starts to wake up.

The solution involves "a new anesthetic protocol based on the use of two non-opiate drugs." This protocol was experimentally tested on 10 hippos, all of which "recovered rapidly and completely from the procedure and showed no lasting after-effects."

The interesting detail left out of the Science Daily article, but which can be found in the original article in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, is that all 10 hippos were castrated while asleep. If they had woken up while that was happening, I'm sure they really would have been angry!

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 09, 2012
Category: Animals | Medicine | Surgery

Comments

What size Neuticles were used to replace the missing "parts" so the effected boys don't get shunned by the other hippos?

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 07/09/12 at 08:53 AM

Isn't the plural Hippopotami? Spell check gave me the spelling so that kind of supports my supposition. Why are they neutering wild animals anyway?

Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 07/09/12 at 09:46 AM

Well, gee, Patty, we wouldn't want them to have to fight to earn the chance to breed! That would be so, so cruel.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 07/09/12 at 10:38 AM

The go-to source for info on hippos, Gayla Peevey, is unsure about the plural: it's either hippopotomusses or hippopotomussesses. She's not much use on the danger to vets, either: "Mom says a hippo would eat me up, but then, Teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian."

Flanders and Swann go with Hippopotami.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN0WPwFD9is

Posted by TheCannyScot in Atlanta, GA on 07/09/12 at 12:43 PM

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