Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Pain relief in cats after spay: oral vs injection buprenorphine
By Gassel, Adam D et al.·Published in Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association·2005·Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Comparison of oral and subcutaneous administration of buprenorphine and meloxicam for preemptive analgesia in cats undergoing ovariohysterectomy.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of 51 female cats, aged 4 to 60 months, underwent spaying (ovariohysterectomy) and were given different pain medications before surgery to see which worked best. Cats that received meloxicam, either by mouth or injection, showed less pain after surgery compared to those given buprenorphine by mouth. In fact, none of the cats that received meloxicam needed extra pain relief afterward, while some of those given buprenorphine did. This suggests that meloxicam is a more effective option for managing pain in cats after spaying.
People also search for: cat spay pain relief · meloxicam for cats · buprenorphine vs meloxicam for cats
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of preoperative PO and SC administration of buprenorphine and meloxicam for prevention of postoperative pain-associated behaviors in cats undergoing ovariohysterectomy. DESIGN: Randomized controlled study. ANIMALS: 51 female cats (4 to 60 months old; weight range, 1.41 to 4.73 kg [3.1 to 10.4 lb]). PROCEDURE: Cats received 1 of 5 treatments at the time of anesthetic induction: buprenorphine PO (0.01 mg/kg [0.0045 mg/lb]; n = 10), buprenorphine SC (0.01 mg/kg; 10), meloxicam SC (0.3 mg/kg 10.14 mg/lb]; 10), meloxicam PO (0.3 mg/kg; 10), or 0.3 mL of sterile saline (0.9% NaCI) solution SC (control group; 11). Sedation scores and visual analog scale and interactive visual analog scale (IVAS) pain-associated behavior scores were assigned to each cat 2 hours before and at intervals until 20 hours after surgery. RESULTS: Cats receiving meloxicam PO or SC had significantly lower IVAS scores (2.91 and 2.02, respectively), compared with IVAS scores for cats receiving buprenorphine PO (755). Pain-associated behavior scores for cats administered buprenorphine or meloxicam PO or SC preoperatively did not differ significantly from control group scores. Rescue analgesia was not required by any of the cats receiving meloxicam, whereas 3 of 10 cats receiving buprenorphine PO, 2 of 10 cats receiving buprenorphine SC, and 1 of 11 cats receiving the control treatment required rescue analgesia. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: On the basis of pain-associated behavior scores, cats receiving meloxicam PO or SC before ovariohysterectomy appeared to have less pain after surgery than those receiving buprenorphine PO preoperatively.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16379630/