Anaesthesia of free-ranging Northern chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) with xylazine/ketamine and reversal with atipamezole

One-hundred and fifty-five free-ranging Northern chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) were anaesthetised in the course of a restocking programme using xylazine plus ketamine. Mean +/- SD dosages for xylazine and ketamine were 1.9 +/- 0.5 and 2.2 +/- 0.7 mg/kg, respectively. In 57 chamois, sedation was reversed using 0.3 +/- 0.1 mg/kg atipamezole. Although all the anaesthetic dosages tested immobilised free-ranging Northern chamois, shorter induction times (4.8 +/- 2.6 min), deeper sedation with no reaction to handling in > 90% of the animals and quick reversal (4.0 +/- 2.7 min) were obtained using 2.5 mg/kg xylazine plus 3.0 mg/kg ketamine reversed with 0.25 mg/kg atipamezole. Under the conditions of this study, suggested standard doses are 63 mg/animal xylazine plus 76 mg/animal ketamine reversed by 6.3 mg/animal atipamezole. This anaesthetic protocol improves the results from the previous study of Dematteis et al. (Vet Rec 163:184-189, 2008) using xylazine alone.