Influência da administração prévia de gabapentina e intervenção com práticas integrativas sobre o estresse no atendimento de felinos

Abstract

The clinical care of domestic felines represents a difficulty for veterinarians, especially for the peculiar behavioral characteristics of the species, which, among other reasons, are due to their recent domestication. In this context, the specialized clinical care aims to reduce stress during consultations, decreasing the risk of accidents and increasing the animal welfare. In this purpose, integrative practices (music therapy, pheromone therapy, and chromotherapy) are described as noninvasive and complementary methods to the management of animals. Pharmacological intervention with gabapentin before the feline consultation has been described as an efficient alternative, reducing stress during the consultation. In view of the exposed, the objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the previous administration of gabapentin and intervention with different integrative practices on the stress during feline clinical care. Twenty healthy felines were included, and the animals were submitted to three treatments: placebo (PL), gabapentin (GA) and integrative practices (PR). Each treatment was administered on a different day, with an interval of 7 days between them. The administration of gabapentin was realized 90 minutes previously to the transportation of the cats to the veterinary hospital. The integrative practices included were chromotherapy, music therapy, and pheromone therapy, applied simultaneously for 30 minutes previously to the medical appointment. Stress was evaluated according to Kessler & Turner (1997). The comparison between the groups was done by variance analysis for paired samples, followed by the least significant difference test, considering a minimum confidence interval of 95% in all statistical analyses. During the study, it was observed that the mean stress score was 2,95 for the placebo group, 2,75 for the gabapentin group, and 2,65 for the integrative practices group. There was no statistical difference in stress scores between the treatment and placebo groups. In heart rate, the gabapentin group presented the highest mean value (159bpm), followed by the placebo group (156bpm) and the integrative practices group (153bpm). In respiratory rate, the placebo and gabapentin groups presented the same value (45 mpm), which was higher than the value obtained by the integrative practices group (42 mpm). It was evidenced in this research, that the treatments did not influence the hematological parameters and serum concentrations of biochemical markers of the cats. The mean blood glucose was higher in the gabapentin group (118mg/dL), followed by the integrative practices group (117 mg/dL) and the placebo group (98 mg/dL), with no statistical difference between the groups. In the cortisol analysis the mean concentration of the placebo group (7,3 ug/dL) was higher when compared to the mean concentration of gabapentin (4,9 ug/dL) and integrative practices (4,1 ug/dL), showing a statistical difference between the groups (PL and GA, PL and PR), demonstrating that the treatments were effective in reducing stress, according to the cortisol value. The study evidenced that the use of gabapentin, as well as chromotherapy, pheromone therapy and music therapy in the veterinary office environment attenuated anxiety in cats.