When the cat's meow means ow!Cats are famous for their stoic nature. Since their days as wild animals WILD ANIMALS. Animals in a state of nature; animals ferae naturae. Vide Animals; Ferae naturae. , they've hidden pain well. As a result, veterinarians often fail to provide them with adequate pain kil- lers, although studies of humans suggest that controlling pain may help speed healing. Julie D. Smith of Kansas State University Kansas State University, main campus at Manhattan; coeducational; land-grant and state supported; chartered and opened 1863. There is an additional campus at Salina. Among the university's research facilities are the J. R. in Manhattan and her colleagues studied possible indicators of pain in cats that they had spayed spay tr.v. spayed, spay·ing, spays To remove surgically the ovaries of (an animal). [Middle English spaien, from Anglo-Norman espeier, to cut with a sword and then treated with varying amounts of analgesics Analgesics Definition Analgesics are medicines that relieve pain. Purpose Analgesics are those drugs that mainly provide pain relief. , they report in the November American Journal of Veterinary Research. Cats that received no postoperative analgesics had higher concentrations of cortisol cortisol (kôr`tĭsôl') or hydrocortisone, steroid hormone that in humans is the major circulating hormone of the cortex, or outer layer, of the adrenal gland. , a stress-related hormone, in their blood than did animals that received butorphanol for pain. Cats with elevated cortisol also had higher blood pressure readings. Veterinarians should consider pain a cause of high blood pressure, Smith recommends. Contrary to many veterinarians' thinking, elevated heart and respiratory rates and high glucose concentrations were poor indicators of pain. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion