The Australian GPs in this study had mixed views about the increasing profile of evidence-based medicine, and the use of this paradigm in practice. Acceptability was more likely to be influenced by relevance to general practice and local contextual and patient factors than by the strength, or critical quality of the evidence.

OBJECTIVE To compare analgesic and gastrointestinal effects of lidocaine and buprenorphine administered to rabbits undergoing ovariohysterectomy. ANIMALS Fourteen 12-month-old female New Zealand White rabbits. PROCEDURES Rabbits were assigned to 2 treatment groups (7 rabbits/group). One group received buprenorphine (0.06 mg/kg, IV, q 8 h for 2 days), and the other received lidocaine (continuous rate infusion [CRI] at 100 μg/kg/min for 2 days). Variables, including food and water consumption, fecal output, glucose and cortisol concentrations, and behaviors while in exercise pens, were recorded. RESULTS Rabbits receiving a lidocaine CRI had significantly higher gastrointestinal motility, food intake, and fecal output and significantly lower glucose concentrations, compared with results for rabbits receiving buprenorphine. Rabbits receiving lidocaine also had a higher number of normal behaviors (eg, sprawling, traveling, and frolicking) after surgery, compared with behaviors such as crouching and sitting that were seen more commonly in rabbits receiving buprenorphine. Both groups had significant weight loss after surgery. Pain scores did not differ significantly between treatment groups. Significant decreases in heart rate and respiratory rate were observed on the day of surgery, compared with values before and after surgery. Rabbits in the lidocaine group had significantly overall lower heart rates than did rabbits in the buprenorphine group. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE A CRI of lidocaine to rabbits provided better postoperative outcomes with respect to fecal output, food intake, and glucose concentrations. Thus, lidocaine appeared to be a suitable alternative to buprenorphine for alleviating postoperative pain with minimal risk of anorexia and gastrointestinal ileus.

The minimization of pain in laboratory animals is a gold standard with implications for improvements in both animal welfare and research quality. Changes in behavioral parameters may indicate that an animal is in pain, but in order to effectively use behavioral change to assess pain, the observer must be familiar with normal behaviors. The author discusses normal and pain-related behaviors exhibited by rodents, rabbits, and ferrets.Parameters for measuring animal responses to painful stimuli fall into three general categories: physiological, biochemical, and behavioral. In animal research, physiological parameters, such as changes in body temperature, heart rate, respiration, or body weight, are the most commonly used indicators of pain. Biochemical parameters-including levels of corticosteroids, catecholamines, and various hormones-are also frequently employed to assess pain or distress in laboratory animals. The third category, howeverbehavioral parameters (see Box 1)-is often overlooked or underestimated.Behavioral changes are often the earliest signs of pain for animal care staff 1 . Not only can behavioral parameters be effective tools for detecting or grading pain, use of these parameters avoids the induction of pain or stress sometimes inherent in collecting biochemical or even physiological data. Behavioral data is especially important in small animals, such as laboratory rodents, because gathering physiological and biochemical data is often not practical in these animals. In many cases, researchers and animal care personnel must make an adequate assessment of pain and discomfort based upon behavioral observations alone.Although investigators who are primarily focused on analgesic research and pain physiology are constrained by their research parameters to develop a good understanding of how to quantify and qualify pain, other researchers and clinicians often misinterpret the common clinical signs of pain or even completely fail to recognize them, especially in species that do not react to pain in an intuitively 'human way' . The innate 'conservation-withdrawal' reflex of prey animal species is much more pervasive and difficult to interpret than the familiar 'fight or flight' reaction to stress or pain that is frequently exhibited by domesticated animals and predator species. Many times 'conservation-withdrawal' reactions to pain, in which the animal calmly crouches down, are misinterpreted as manifestations of relaxation or sleepiness.An understanding of normal species behavior is essential to correctly assessing painful behavior. Often non-specific indications, such as a decrease in food consumption or a change in posture, vocalization, locomotion, or temperament, are used to judge pain. These behaviors, however, may not be uniformly manifest among different species and are often so subtle as to appear absent to the eyes of the untrained observer. Without knowing the range of normal behavior, an observer will find it extremely difficult to detect abnormal behavior, especially in prey species, which oft...

An overall median survival time (MST) and prognostic factors in rabbits with thymomas treated with megavoltage radiation therapy (RT) were determined in this multi-institutional retrospective case analysis. Medical records for 19 rabbits with suspected or confirmed thymomas treated with RT were evaluated for data including signalment, haematological and serum biochemistry abnormalities, presence of pleural effusion, radiation plan, body weight, total radiation dose and institution administering RT. Statistical significance of these factors related to overall survival was assessed. An overall MST for all 19 rabbits was 313 days; exclusion of 3 rabbits that died acutely during the first 14 days of RT yielded a MST of 727 days. The only factor associated with a significantly decreased survival time was having a body weight lower than mean body weight of 1.57 kg. Radiation treatment-associated complications were infrequent and included radiation-induced myocardial failure, radiation pneumonitis and alopecia.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of disseminated cryptococcosis in a North American ferret. This case is unique in that the ferret lived indoors, in a geographic region in which reports of cryptococcosis are rare. The genotyping technique used to identify the Cryptococcus strain can aid in better understanding the epidemiology of cryptococcosis.