Clinical Anesthesia and Analgesia in Invertebrates

Invertebrates are an expansive and diverse group of animals that have had little attention regarding anesthesia and analgesia. Economic use, environmental awareness, laboratory research, and increasing demand for invertebrates as pets has lead to a greater desire for knowledge for these animals in the veterinary medical community. With the increasing number of animal welfare regulations, various scientific studies have improved the overall knowledge of invertebrate medicine, but much more research is required to fully understand anesthesia techniques in the different species treated by veterinarians. Analgesia is a controversial and often neglected topic with invertebrates because of the common belief that invertebrates do not feel pain. Recently, the idea that invertebrates do not feel pain has been challenged with the discovery of nociceptive pathways similar to those in vertebrates. This article presents a general overview of anesthetics and analgesics used in selective invertebrate taxa.