Anesthetic and analgesic options for amphibians

Although the field of pain management in amphibians is still in development, there are still key factors veterinary professionals should know. Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, director of animal health and chief veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, talks about the options available for managing pain in amphibians, as part of a discussion on his Fetch dvm360 Conference lecture, “Navigating Amphibian Anesthesia and Analgesia,” which is now available on-demand for CE credit. In the video, Minter emphasizes that local anesthetics, such as lidocaine and bupivacaine, must be used cautiously in amphibians to avoid toxicity, which can be fatal to these animals.

Below is the interview transcript, lightly edited for clarity:

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM: We're going to talk quite a bit about this during the presentation, but pain management is still a well-evolving area. There's a lot that we still do not know. There are so many different species of amphibians out there. What we do know about one particular species may not work for another one.

There are some options—systemic analgesics, NSAIDS [nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs]. People have used meloxicam, ketoprofen, parecoxib, [and] flunixin for amphibians. But their safety and all their efficacy in all these different species has...only been studied in a few different species, so it's all over the place.

You can use opioids...with most of the exotic species that people may be dealing with on a day-to-day basis. They do have the opioid receptors, but which one works, at what time, [and] how long it stays with them [is] still being explored in our amphibian patients. But we've used morphine; it’s a pretty common one. We've used that for a lot of amphibians that have needed some type of analgesics.

You can also use local anesthetics such as lidocaine and bupivacaine, but you have to be cautious because those particular drugs [have] some toxic effects, and you can easily kill an amphibian if you use too much of those local anesthetics.

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