Abstract
Guinea pigs have been integral as models used in biomedical research, making significant contributions to nutritional, auditory, immunologic, and hypersensitivity studies, and necessitating the routine need for sedation in laboratory settings. The ketamine-xylazine (KX) combination has been the standard sedation protocol for decades. However, due to the adverse effects and abuse potential of xylazine, this study explores the possibility of substituting xylazine with midazolam and examines the combined use of midazolam with ketamine and alfaxalone in female laboratory guinea pigs. Our findings indicate that KX facilitates the fastest induction and longest duration of sedation compared with other sedatives, including ketamine-midazolam (KM), which, despite its rapid induction, results in significantly shorter sedation durations. KX also ensures a deeper anesthetic depth and greater odds of loss of withdrawal and inguinal reflexes, in contrast to KM and alfaxalone-midazolam (AM), under which only 15% of the animals lost these reflexes. In terms of cardiopulmonary function, KM led to an increased heart rate attributed to elevated sympathetic activity. All 4 sedative protocols lead to respiratory depression, except KM, which causes minimal reduction. Adverse events varied, with 75% of animals experiencing injection site reactions after KX administration and 67% exhibiting regurgitation post-KM administration. No adverse events were reported for the AM combination, suggesting its safer profile. In conclusion, while KX remains the superior protocol for sedation due to its efficiency, reliability, and minimal impact on physiologic parameters, midazolam is not a preferable alternative to replace xylazine. Its increased sympathetic tone, hyperesthesia, and shorter action duration, coupled with a higher potential for adverse events, limit its suitability to combine with ketamine in guinea pig sedation. However, when midazolam is used in conjunction with safer alternatives like alfaxalone, it presents a viable sedation strategy, emphasizing the need for further research into optimizing sedative combinations for laboratory guinea pigs.