Clinical abnormalities in working donkeys and their associations with behaviour.

Introductions: Working donkeys are at risk of developing multiple, acute and chronic health problems. The ability to recognise and assess pain in donkeys associated with these health problems is important for people responsible for their care and treatment, including owners and veterinary or animal health workers.

Aims And Objectives: The aims of this study were firstly to quantify the prevalence of a range of clinical abnormalities within a sample of working donkeys; and secondly to find out whether these abnormalities were associated with potential behavioural indicators of pain.

Identifying behavioural differences in working donkeys in response to analgesic administration.

Reasons For Performing Study: To identify pain-related behaviour in working donkeys in order to assist their owners and veterinarians to recognise and manage pain.

Objectives: To identify general and specific behaviours associated with pain or its relief using a trial with the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug meloxicam (Metacam).

Study Design: Observer-blinded, placebo-controlled trial.

Behavioural repertoire of working donkeys and consistency of behaviour over time, as a preliminary step towards identifying pain-related behaviours.

Background: The donkey has a reputation for stoicism and its behavioural repertoire in clinical contexts is under-reported. Lack of understanding of the norms of donkey behaviour and how it may vary over time can compromise use of behavioural measures as indicators of pain or emotional state. The objective of this study was to find out whether the behaviour of working donkeys was influenced by gender, the time of day or differed between days with a view to assessing how robust these measures are for inclusion in a working donkey ethogram.

Thermal nociceptive threshold testing detects altered sensory processing in broiler chickens with spontaneous lameness.

Lameness is common in commercially reared broiler chickens but relationships between lameness and pain (and thus bird welfare) have proved complex, partly because lameness is often partially confounded with factors such as bodyweight, sex and pathology. Thermal nociceptive threshold (TNT) testing explores the neural processing of noxious stimuli, and so can contribute to our understanding of pain. Using an acute model of experimentally induced articular pain, we recently demonstrated that TNT was reduced in lame broiler chickens, and was subsequently attenuated by administration of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs).

Thermal nociception as a measure of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug effectiveness in broiler chickens with articular pain.

Pain associated with poultry lameness is poorly understood. The anti-nociceptive properties of two non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were evaluated using threshold testing in combination with an acute inflammatory arthropathy model. Broilers were tested in six groups (n=8 per group).

Lame broiler chickens respond to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs with objective changes in gait function: a controlled clinical trial.

Leg health of intensively reared broiler chickens is a significant problem, yet little is known regarding the nature of lameness-associated pain. Kinematic changes in gait have been reported in naturally lame broilers following subcutaneous non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) administration, compared to a placebo group. In the current study, an extensive range of gait parameters were defined using a commercial motion-capturing system to record three-dimensional temporospatial information from walking broilers pre- and post-treatment.

Kinematic analysis quantifies gait abnormalities associated with lameness in broiler chickens and identifies evolutionary gait differences.

This is the first time that gait characteristics of broiler (meat) chickens have been compared with their progenitor, jungle fowl, and the first kinematic study to report a link between broiler gait parameters and defined lameness scores. A commercial motion-capturing system recorded three-dimensional temporospatial information during walking. The hypothesis was that the gait characteristics of non-lame broilers (n = 10) would be intermediate to those of lame broilers (n = 12) and jungle fowl (n = 10, tested at two ages: immature and adult).

Development of mechanical and thermal nociceptive threshold testing devices in unrestrained birds (broiler chickens).

Behavioural signs of pain are difficult to quantify and interpret in animals. Nociceptive threshold testing is therefore a useful method for examining the perception and processing of noxious stimuli underlying pain states. Devices were developed to measure response thresholds to quantified, ramped mechanical and thermal nociceptive stimuli applied to the leg or keel of unrestrained birds.

Assessment of the sedative effects of buprenorphine administered with 10 μg/kg detomidine in horses.

The aim of this randomised, observer-blinded, crossover study was to compare the effects of six treatments, administered intravenously to six horses: saline and saline (S/S); detomidine and saline (D/S); detomidine and 5 µg/kg buprenorphine (D/B5); detomidine and 7.5 µg/kg buprenorphine (D/B7.5); detomidine and 10 µg/kg buprenorphine (D/B10); and detomidine and 25 µg/kg butorphanol (D/BUT).

Assessment of the sedative effects of buprenorphine administered with 20 microg/kg detomidine in horses.

The aim of this randomised, observer-blinded, crossover study was to compare the effects of four treatments, administered intravenously to six horses: saline and saline; 10 µg/kg detomidine and 7.5 µg/kg buprenorphine; 20 µg/kg detomidine and 7.5 µg/kg buprenorphine; and 20 µg/kg detomidine and 10 µg/kg buprenorphine.

Do psychological and physiological stressors alter the acute pain response to castration and tail docking in lambs?

Objective: To investigate whether events that may be stressful to young lambs, including simulated infection or social isolation, modulate pain experienced by lambs following castration and tail docking (C/D).

Study Design: Randomised, controlled, prospective study.

Animals: Fifty male lambs born to 46 second-parity Mule ewes.

Effects of two doses of buprenorphine four or six hours apart on nociceptive thresholds, pain and sedation in dogs after castration.

Twenty-eight dogs were randomly allocated into two groups. They were premedicated with either 10 or 20 microg/kg buprenorphine and 0.05 mg/kg acepromazine administered intramuscularly, and then anaesthetised with intravenous thiopentone to effect and maintained with isoflurane in 100 per cent oxygen.

A comparison between pre-operative carprofen and a long-acting sufentanil formulation for analgesia after ovariohysterectomy in dogs.

Objective: To assess the analgesic efficacy and adverse effects of a novel, long-acting sufentanil preparation in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy (OHE).

Study Design: Blinded, positively controlled, randomized field trial with four parallel treatment groups.

Animals: Eighty client owned dogs undergoing elective OHE randomly allocated into four treatment groups (each n = 20).

Role of ketoprofen in the modulation of hyperalgesia associated with lameness in dairy cattle.

Forty lame dairy cows were randomly assigned to receive a course of either the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ketoprofen, or sterile saline, together with conventional treatment for lameness. The effect of the ketoprofen was measured by using locomotion scoring and by testing the cows' nociceptive threshold over a period of 28 days. The locomotion score of all the cows improved but ketoprofen had no significant effect on this change.

Assessment of the influence of surgical technique on postoperative pain and wound tenderness in cats following ovariohysterectomy.

Elective ovariohysterectomy was performed on 66 cats. Surgical approach was flank (group F) or midline (group M) allocated by block randomisation. Pre-anaesthetic medication was acepromazine (0.

Investigation of the EEG effects of intravenous lidocaine during halothane anaesthesia in ponies.

Objective: To record the electroencephalographic changes during castration in ponies anaesthetized with halothane and given intravenous (IV) lidocaine by infusion. The hypothesis tested was that in ponies, IV lidocaine is antinociceptive and would therefore obtund EEG changes during castration.

Animals: Ten Welsh mountain ponies referred to the Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Cambridge for castration under general anaesthesia.

Changes in the EEG during castration in horses and ponies anaesthetized with halothane.

Objective: To identify changes in the amplitude spectrum of the electroencephalogram (EEG) during a standardized surgical model of nociception in horses.

Animals: Thirteen entire male horses and ponies referred to Division of Clinical Veterinary Science, Bristol (n = 9) and Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine (n = 4) for castration.

Materials And Methods: Following pre-anaesthetic medication with acepromazine, anaesthesia was induced with guaiphenesin and thiopental and maintained with halothane in oxygen.

Comparison between meloxicam and carprofen for postoperative analgesia after feline ovariohysterectomy.

Eighty female cats presented for ovariohysterectomy were randomly allocated to one of two treatment groups in this assessor-blinded trial. After pre-anaesthetic assessment, the cats were premedicated with acepromazine (0.1 mg/kg).

Use of a new finger-mounted device to compare mechanical nociceptive thresholds in cats given pethidine or no medication after castration.

Mechanical nociceptive thresholds are regularly used to determine the efficacy of analgesic agents both experimentally and clinically in a variety of species. The 'pressure of palpation device' (PPD) was developed for use in cats and is a small battery operated device with a finger-mounted force sensing resistor (FSR, Interlink Electronics, Northumberland. UK).

Analgesic effects in dogs of carprofen and pethidine together compared with the effects of either drug alone.

Thirty bitches undergoing routine neutering were used in an assessor-blinded trial of the postoperative analgesic effects of pethidine and carprofen administered either together or singly. The level of analgesia was assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS) scores for pain and sedation and by nociceptive mechanical threshold testing. The two drugs administered together, and carprofen alone, provided good postoperative analgesia as assessed by VAS scoring.

Postoperative analgesia in the cat after ovariohysterectomy by use of carprofen, ketoprofen, meloxicam or tolfenamic acid.

The adequacy of postoperative analgesia was assessed in 40 cats following ovariohysterectomy. At extubation, cats were given one dose of carprofen, ketoprofen, meloxicam or tolfenamic acid. Postoperative analgesia was assessed using visual analogue scale (VAS) scoring for pain and sedation; measurement of mechanical nociceptive thresholds at the wound; recognition of the requirement for rescue intervention analgesia; and an overall clinical assessment score at 18 hours.

The post-operative analgesic effects of ketamine after canine ovariohysterectomy--a comparison between pre- or post-operative administration.

Thirty-six female dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy were randomly allocated into three groups in this assessor-blinded study. The control group received no ketamine, the preketamine group were given ketamine (2.5 mg kg(-1)i.

Antinociceptive effects of intrathecal 5-HT agonists in sheep.

Objectives: To examine the role of spinal 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) binding sites in nociceptive processing in conscious sheep and to study the role of 5-HT agonists in mediating analgesia.

Study Design: Prospective controlled study.

Animals: Nine adult healthy female sheep (Swaledale, Swaledale-cross or Clun Forest) weighing 45-65 kg.