Small Mammals: Common Surgical Procedures of Rodents, Ferrets, Hedgehogs, and Sugar Gliders.

Small mammal surgical procedures are a part of clinical veterinary practice and are performed with regularity. Anesthetic and analgesic techniques are important components of any successful small mammal surgical procedure. Many basic surgical principles used in dogs and cats can be directly applied to small mammals, but tissues tend to be smaller and thinner, and hemostasis is critical with small patients due to risk of death with minimal blood loss. Common surgical procedures in small mammals include integumentary mass and abscess excision, reproductive procedures, gastrointestinal foreign body removal, urolith removal, prolapsed tissues associated with the gastrointestinal tract, intra-abdominal mass excision, and hepatic surgery.

Blood collection and surgical procedures for the laboratory opossum (Monodelphis domestica).

Procedures have been developed for collecting blood samples from the laboratory opossum (Monodelphis domestica) and for conducting survival surgery on adults. Blood samples up to 1 ml were collected routinely by cardiac puncture of animals anesthetized by inhalation of methoxyflurane or halothane with minimal risk; however, halothane required more careful monitoring. Surgical procedures such as partial hepatectomy unilateral hysterectomy, and tail wound repair were safely accomplished on animals anesthetized with methoxyflurane. Other surgical procedures including enucleation and intra-abdominal vasectomy were carried out successfully with an inhalation/injection (pentobarbital-atropine-ketamine) protocol that was successful also for recipient surrogate females in embryo transfer experiments.