Studies were primarily related to the assessment of pain in relation to surgical procedures , and no clear distinction was made concerning the onset of acute and chronic pain .
The metrics used within the tools appeared to focus primarily on the sensory aspect of pain , with no study clearly discriminating between the sensory and affective components of pain .
Objectives The objectives were to review systematic ally the range of assessment tools used in cats to detect the behavioural expression of pain and the evidence of their quality ; and to examine behavioural metrics ( considering both the sensory and affective domains ) used to assess pain .
Combination of dexmedetomidine with buprenorphine enhances the antinociceptive effect to a thermal stimulus in the cat compared with either agent alone.
OBJECTIVE To evaluate the sedative and antinociceptive effects of combinations of dexmedetomidine and buprenorphine in cats . STUDY DESIGN Experimental r and omized study . ANIMALS Twelve purpose -bred neutered domestic short-hair cats ( 4 male and 8 female ) weighing 4.6 kg ( range 3.7 - 5.5 kg ) aged from 2 to 5 years . METHODS Six cats per group were administered buprenorphine ( B ) at 10 ( B10 ) or 20 microg kg(-1 ) ( B20 ) or dexmedetomidine ( D ) at 20 ( D20 ) or 40 microg kg(-1 ) ( D40 ) or a combination of B10/D20 . A feline thermal nociceptive threshold testing device was used to evaluate the antinociceptive effects of the drugs before and up to 24 hours after drug treatment . Sedation was scored using a 100 mm visual analogue scale ( VAS ) . RESULTS Thermal thresholds increased significantly after administration of all but D20 . Area under the curve ( AUC , hours degrees C ) for the first 6 hours ( mean + /- SD ) for B20 ( 281 + /- 17.8 ) was significantly greater than B10 ( 260 + /- 11.4 ) , D20 ( 250 + /- 7.9 ) and D40 ( 255 + /- 11.4 ) . The AUC for B10/D20 ( 273 + /- 12.2 ) was significantly greater than D20 but not the other treatments . No sedation was seen after administration of B10 or B20 and maximal sedation was seen for all animals in the D40 and B10/D20 groups and most animals in the D20 group . CONCLUSIONS D20 alone had the smallest analgesic effect ; B10 alone provided no sedation but their combination gave good sedation with analgesia comparable with B20 . CLINICAL RELEVANCE This combination could be a useful multimodal sedative/analgesic regimen in cats
Studies were primarily related to the assessment of pain in relation to surgical procedures , and no clear distinction was made concerning the onset of acute and chronic pain .
The metrics used within the tools appeared to focus primarily on the sensory aspect of pain , with no study clearly discriminating between the sensory and affective components of pain .
Objectives The objectives were to review systematic ally the range of assessment tools used in cats to detect the behavioural expression of pain and the evidence of their quality ; and to examine behavioural metrics ( considering both the sensory and affective domains ) used to assess pain .