[Comparison of three different anesthesia procedures in calves with respect to possible pain-associated reactions].

The objective of this study was to compare the effects of three anaesthetic protocols with respect to possible pain-associated reactions: injection (INJE) with xylazine (0.2 mg/kg), ketamine (5 mg/kg) and local anaesthesia (procain 2%); a combination of injection and inhalation (KOMB) with xylazine (0.2 mg/kg), ketamine (2 mg/kg), and isoflurane (1.5-3.0 vol%); and inhalation with isoflurane (control group [o]) surgery. During the trial, the anaesthetic level was controlled, and signs of response to surgical stimulation or spontaneous movements, changes in heart rate, mean arterial pressure, plasma L-lactate and cortisol levels were recorded. The dosage of 5 mg ketamine/kg body mass was rarely sufficient to obtain surgical tolerance in group INJE. In order to attain surgical tolerance, it was necessary to administer an average of 8.4 mg ketamine/kg body mass. All animals of the INJEc/o groups started to show signs of spontaneous movements or response to surgical stimulation between five and twelve minutes after the last administration of ketamine. Signs of response to surgical stimulation at the time of skin incision were significantly most frequent (37%) in the INHAc group, while agitation or response to surgical stimulation at least once during the entire time of anaesthesia was significantly (p <0.01) most frequent in the INJEc group (100%). Changes in heart rate and mean blood pressure were not found to be related to surgical stress situations.Ten minutes after the incision, the highest increases in plasma cortisol levels above basal levels of the previous day were determined in the groups INJEc and INJEo (53.5 and 57.7 nmol/l, respectively). However, a significant increase of plasma cortisol levels between the previous day and ten minutes after incision was only found between INHAc and INHAo (30.1 versus 7.5 nmol/l, p < 0.01) but not in the other pairs of groups (INJEc/o and KOMBdc/o). Within the three experimental groups the increase of plasma cortisol levels between the previous day and ten minutes after incision was only significant between INJEc and KOMBc (53.5 versus 28.3 nmol/l, p < 0.01). Among the protocols tested in this study, the combination anaesthesia (KOMB) was associated with the least amount of pain-associated reactions by the calves. Therefore, this protocol should be used preferred to the other two protocols in order to minimise stress and pain for the animals as much as posssible.