title: Prepubertal gonadectomy in cats: different injectable anaesthetic combinations and comparison with gonadectomy at traditional age.
abstract: Anaesthetic and analgesic effects of three different injectable anaesthetic combinations for prepubertal gonadectomy (PPG) in cats were studied. One anaesthetic protocol was compared with a similar one for gonadectomy at traditional age (TAG). Kittens were randomly assigned to PPG or TAG. For PPG, three different protocols were compared: (1) intramuscular (IM) administration of 60 μg/kg dexmedetomidine plus 20 μg/kg buprenorphine followed by an IM injection of the anaesthetic agent (20 mg/kg ketamine) (DB-IM protocol); (2) oral transmucosal (OTM) administration of 80 μg/kg dexmedetomidine plus 20 μg/kg buprenorphine followed by an IM injection of 20 mg/kg ketamine combined with 20 µg/kg dexmedetomidine (DB-OTM protocol); (3) IM injection of a 40 μg/kg medetomidine-20 μg/kg buprenorphine-20 mg/kg ketamine combination (MBK-IM protocol). For TAG, a DB-IM protocol was used, but with different doses for dexmedetomidine (40 μg/kg) and ketamine (5 mg/kg). All cats (PPG and TAG) received a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory before surgery. Anaesthetic and analgesic effects were assessed pre- and postoperatively (until 6 h). Cumulative logit, linear and logistic regression models were used for statistical analysis. Compared with the DB-OTM protocol, the DB-IM and MBK-IM protocols provided better anaesthesia with fewer adverse effects in PPG cats. Postoperative pain was not significantly different between anaesthetic protocols. PPG and TAG cats anaesthetised with the two DB-IM protocols differed significantly only for sedation and pain scores, but sedation and pain scores were generally low. Although there were no anaesthesia-related mortalities in the present study and all anaesthetic protocols for PPG in cats provided a surgical plane of anaesthesia and analgesia up to 6 h postoperatively, our findings were in favour of the intramuscular (DB-IM and MBK-IM) protocols.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Clinical Biology of Small Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Porters
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Clinical Biology of Small Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: Hilde
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: de Rooster
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Genetics and Ethology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: Christel P H
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Moons
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Physiology and Biometrics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duchateau
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Physiology and Biometrics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: Klara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goethals
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Clinical Biology of Small Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bosmans
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Clinical Biology of Small Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium ingeborgh.polis@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Ingeborgh
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Polis
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D000777:Anesthetics / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D000818:Animals; D002047:Buprenorphine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D002415:Cats / Q000601:surgery*; D020927:Dexmedetomidine / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D007273:Injections, Intramuscular / Q000662:veterinary; D007649:Ketamine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D020926:Medetomidine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D009919:Orchiectomy / Q000662:veterinary*; D010052:Ovariectomy / Q000662:veterinary*; D010146:Pain / Q000662:veterinary; D011897:Random Allocation; D012741:Sexual Maturation
chemical_list: D000777:Anesthetics; D002047:Buprenorphine; D020927:Dexmedetomidine; D007649:Ketamine; D020926:Medetomidine