Ketamine Hydrochloride is most commonly used as a veterinary anaesthetic. It is generally injected intramuscularly, but can also be taken orally, rectally, or snorted. Much of the ketamine used recreationally is diverted from legitimate pharmaceutical sources in liquid form. Powdered ketamine is usually the result of drying liquid ketamine.

Food should not be consumed within an hour and one-half before ketamine use, and should be avoided for longer periods of time if possible as nausea and vomiting are not uncommon. As always, it should be noted that dosages and reactions vary greatly depending on the individual. Following are charts showing approximate ketamine dosages in mg (by administration type).

Nasal / Insufflated Oral Rectal Intra-Muscular

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Insufflated / Nasal Ketamine Dosages   by body weight approx total Threshold .1 mg / lb 10 - 15 mg Light .15 mg / lb 15 - 30 mg Common .3 mg / lb 30 - 75 mg Strong .5 - .75 mg / lb 60 - 125 mg The K Hole 1 mg / lb 100 - 250 mg

Onset : 5 - 15 minutes Duration : 45 - 60 minutes Normal After Effects : 1 - 3 hours

Powder for nasal use are produced by gentle boiling off of solution. Nasal doses are highly unlinear next to oral and IM doses. The effects are quite different at low doses. A low dose nasally will be short and much different from a comparable oral dose.

One method described with nasal use is to insufflate (snort) 25 mg in each nostril, wait 5 minutes and repeat until desired dosage is reached.

Ketamine is often used in 'bumps' or small amounts of the powder insufflated from either a specialized micro-spoon, a specialized 'bullet', or eyeballed small piles. Bumps from bullets are commonly 30-50 mg, although their size varies by size of spoon, make of bullet, and individual. Users should be extremely careful when using a new method of sizing bumps.

Ketamine dissolved in saline solution (usually at 10% concentration) is also used intranasally. Although racemic ketamine is occasionally prescribed medically in the United States as an adjunct to other pain management strategies, there is no FDA-approved racemic ketamine nasal spray product and it must be produced by a compounding pharmacy for prescription use.

Beginning in 2019, a nasal spray formulation of S-ketamine was approved in the United States for specific clinical indications.

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Oral Ketamine Dosages   by body weight approx total Threshold .3 mg / lb 40 - 50 mg Light .6 mg / lb 50 - 100 mg Common .75 - 2 mg / lb 75 - 300 mg Strong 1.5 - 2.5 mg / lb 200 - 450 mg The K Hole 3 - 4 mg / lb 500 + mg

Onset : 5 - 20 minutes (depending on stomach contents) Duration : 90 minutes Normal After Effects : 4 - 8 hours

Oral doses are prepared from a powder by placing the powder in a cup and pouring about 1 cm of hot water (tap should be ok) in it and stiring to solution. The remainder of the cup is filled with an acid such as orange juice. Ketamine itself tastes quite bad.

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Rectal Ketamine Dosages   by body weight approx total Threshold .3 mg / lb 40 - 50 mg Light .6 mg / lb 50 - 100 mg Common .75 - 2 mg / lb 75 - 300 mg Strong 1.5 - 2.5 mg / lb 200 - 450 mg The K Hole 3 - 4 mg / lb 500 + mg

Onset : 5 - 20 minutes Peak : 30 - 60 minutes Duration : 1 - 2 hours Normal After Effects : 1 - 4 hours

Some who choose the rectal administration route use a syringe with the needle removed. The desired dosage can be put in the syringe, inserted (using lubricant) and injected. Rectal use is similar to oral in that it has a lower peak, but longer duration.

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I.M. Ketamine Dosages   by body weight approx total Threshold .1 mg / lb 10 - 15 mg Light .15 mg / lb 15 - 30 mg Common .2 mg / lb 25 - 50 mg Strong .5 mg / lb 40 - 100 mg The K Hole .75 mg / lb 60 - 125 mg Anaesthetic 1 mg / lb 100 - 200 mg

Onset : 1 - 5 minutes (depending on dose and injection location) Duration : 30 - 60 minutes Normal After Effects : 2 - 4 hours

It is common to have muscle pain when injecting larger doses of liquid Ketamine into muscle tissue. The pain can continue for several days if it is not administered properly. The muscle soreness can be somewhat controlled by using a very fine needle (25-29 gauge) and by injecting very slowly. Too large a needle (low gauge) is painful. Too small a needle (high gauge) is too delicate and can bend. [Thanks to 2020 contributors who have helped us improve our info about preferred gauges.) It should take 10-30 or more seconds to inject a dose into a muscle. If you feel it begin to sting, slow down the injection rate. IM and IV administration generally produce a higher peak, and a shorter overall duration than other methods.

I.V. Ketamine Dosages Anaesthetic 1 - 4.5 mg/kg body

Onset : 1 - 4 minutes (depending on dose and injection location) Duration : 30 - 60 minutes Normal After Effects : 2 - 4 hours

Although some recreational users do inject ketamine I.V., it is uncommon to inject ketamine intravenously. It is commonly used medically for surgical anaesthesia via IV. The book 'Introduction to Pharmacology' by 'Mary Kaye Asperheim and Justin Favaro' 12th edition chapter 12. Page 107.