Basic Techniques to Facilitate Small Animal Experimentation

Rodents and rabbits are among the most used species among laboratory animals. The researchers shall be adequately educated in basic techniques to start working with these species. Basic techniques include unique identification of the individual animals, acclimatization, handling the species and restraint, decision-making in the volumes, and routes of administering substances and blood withdrawal, techniques to induce and maintain anesthesia, analgesia, technique to use the stereotactic frame, vasectomy, and ovariectomy. Peri-anesthetic care, fluid administration and support, aiding recovery, monitoring of anesthesia, actions adopted based on vital parameters like body temperature, heart rate, and oxygenation are essential skills that shall be honed while working with these species. Aseptic precautions to be followed, suturing techniques and procedures to aid pharmacological research like jugular and carotid catheterizations are advanced techniques that also shall equip any researcher with confidence to work in the field of translational research. Further, techniques to endotracheally intubate rodents and rabbits, tracheostomy in cases where endotracheal intubation is not done, mechanical ventilation, and thoracotomy are procedures that are required to develop sophisticated animal models. This chapter, with stepwise photographs and instructions, will teach the readers how to perform the forementioned procedures in rodents and rabbits, thereby equipping them as invaluable professionals in the field of small animal research.