Cortisol concentration, pain and sedation scale in free roaming dogs treated with carprofen after ovariohysterectomy

Abstract

Background and Aim:One of the topic issues in animal welfare activities is the free roaming dog welfare especially in developing countries such as Serbia. The way of controlling population of free roaming dogs is their reproduction with the method of “Catch-Neuter-Release.” This complex process consists of capturing free roaming dogs in public areas, sterilizing, and returning them to the public area from which they were temporarily removed. Ovariohysterectomy present the period with a high intensity of stress reaction since many veterinarians in Serbia do not use analgesia for this group of dogs. The aim of this study was to compare the serum cortisol concentration before and after ovariohysterectomy and the level of post-operative pain and sedation in a group of free roaming female dogs treated with carprofen after surgical intervention and in a group with no treatment.Materials and Methods:The study was performed on a total of 20 female dogs under the program for free roaming dog control. Free-roaming dogs were captured in public areas by the communal animal hygiene service and were transported between 30 and 45 min to the clinic of a veterinary practice. Treatment began at 10:00 h on the next day and the bitches were kept in cages until they were returned to public locations from which they were temporarily removed to be sterilized. The G2 group received before closing the incision line carprofen in one dosage of 4 mg/kg given by subcutaneous injection into the scruff. Rescue protocol with carprofen was provided for G1 after 24 h following ovariohysterectomy same dosage as G2. Blood (2 ml) was collected from the cephalic vein of each dog in disposable plastic syringes, containing heparin (1:1000) 4 times: Before ovariohysterectomy, 30, 120 min and 24 h following ovariohysterectomy. Cortisol concentration was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The multifactorial pain and sedation scale were used for the assessment of pain and sedation.Results:In both groups, the lowest values of serum cortisol concentration were obtained before ovariohysterectomy. Cortisol levels in both groups were significantly higher (p<0.01) 30 and 120 min after ovariohysterectomy and showed a decreasing trend toward the end of the observation period (24 h). The results obtained 15 and 30 min after the surgical intervention have revealed a statistically significant difference between the groups (p<0.05) showing that female dogs treated with carprofen had a lower value on the pain scale and a higher value on the sedation scale compared to the group with no treatment.Conclusion:Carprofen provides both a restful consequence of sedation and a rapid return to a more normal physiological and behavioral state in dogs after ovariohysterectomy.

Clinical evaluation of postoperative analgesia, cardiorespiratory parameters and changes in liver and renal function tests of paracetamol compared to meloxicam and carprofen in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy

“…For instance, it has been suggested that meloxicam may control acute postoperative pain for up to 20 hours after a laparotomy, with greater efficacy than that of butorphanol [53]. Carprofen has been widely demonstrated in studies of the perioperative period in dogs [39,48,54] to provide satisfactory analgesia for up to 18 hours post-surgery. Furthermore, premedication, as opposed to postoperative administration, of carprofen provides superior analgesia [12,55].…”

Effects of various surgical procedures on biochemical parameters of Nigerian dogs and their clinical implications

“…Ovariohysterectomy (OVH), gastrotomy (GST), and intestinal resection and anastomosis (IRA) are surgical procedures that are commonly performed in practice. They are performed on the elective and emergency basis and are capable of eliciting variable degrees of surgical stress response which if not allayed by the use of anesthetics and analgesics can result in untoward effects [ 3 - 5 ].…”

Is ECLIA Serum Cortisol Concentration Measurement, an Accurate Indicator of Pain Severity in Dogs with Locomotor Pain?

“…Some methods are assessing the short-term variations, while others are focusing on the long-term changes. For the chronic pain assessment, it would be clinically more useful to be able to determine the long-term variations of cortisol, but measuring this parameter could be misleading since multiple cut-off values were shown in the literature, depending on the method used, and many clashing opinions on this subject emerged in the last decade [4,7,21,24].…”

“…An Objective pain measurement method would be gait analysis. The combination of various methods should be taken into consideration [7,8,24,25,34,35].…”

“…Examples for subjective methods are pain scales, such as the Helsinki Chronic Pain Index (HCPI), Glasgow Composite Measures Pain Scale (CMPS), visual analogue scales (VAS) or simple descriptive scores (SDS) [1]. Gait analysis would be a more objective method, but also has its limitations [7,8]. Cortisol measurement remains an important method to assess stress associated to pain in dogs, amongst other biomarkers like catecholamine or physiological markers like heart rate, blood pressure or respiratory rate.…”