Well Equipped Lab

When you’re working in a lab with research animals, having the right equipment is paramount. Use this helpful checklist to make sure your lab has all the equipment needed for maximum efficiency and the safety of your technicians and animals. Anesthesia Capability Any lab that performs surgery on animals needs a method of administering anesthesia to safely and reversibly cause them to lose consciousness, which prevents them from perceiving painful or stressful stimuli while maintaining physiological functions as close to normal as possible. Anesthesia can be administered via inhalant (isoflurane or sevoflurane are recommended) or injectable (including barbiturates, steroids, propofol, etc.). For small animal surgeries, inhaled anesthetic is generally safer, and increases the chance for successful outcomes. Inhalant anesthesia has several advantages over injectable anesthetics, including ease of administration, an improved level of control over the depth and duration of anesthesia, shorter recovery time, lower incidence of death, and faster elimination from the body. If you use inhalant anesthesia in a laboratory setting with mice or rats, make sure you have special equipment designed to accommodate the physiological characteristics of small animals. Choose a traditional wick-type vaporizer like our VetFlo or the full SomnoSuite low-flow anesthesia delivery system, which includes an integrated electronic vaporizer that can use either compressed gas or room air.