Refining analgesic techniques for routine surgery of the dog and cat

摘要

This article is designed to discuss the pain caused by "minor" surgery in dogs and cats, in those patients without major trauma and without serious systemic illness. These procedures range in severity from small skin wounds to opening the abdominal wall or amputation of digits. As the amount of tissue damage and location of the incisions varies, so will the duration and intensity of the potential pain experience. Another section of this program will consider techniques for more extensive surgery. Bydiscussing the type of pain inherent with a given situation, advocating a fresh look at how patients appear after surgery and reviewing therapeutic options, the goal is to provide a template upon which to base a regimen for any "non-major" surgical procedure that is not specifically discussed here.