Epidural administration of romifidine for surgical analgesia of buffaloes undergoing standing flank and udder surgery.

Abstract EN

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of romifidine as epidural analgesic for standing flank and udder surgery in buffaloes.

For this purpose, romifidine was administered at dose 50 μg kg-1 via epidural space in 20 female buffaloes had to undergo flank and udder surgery.

Buffaloes were examined for time to onset of analgesia, anatomic extent of analgesia, all systemic reactions to the drug and the total procedure time.

Moreover, heart rates, rectal temperature, respiratory rates, feces and urine production as well as the degree of analgesia, sedation and ataxia were recorded at different intervals before (baseline) and after administration.

In all animals, epidural injection of romifidine induced a significant decrease in the heart rate.

However rectal temperature and respiratory rate didn’t show any significant changes.

There was a significant increase of analgesic effect with time progress.

For all animals, the peak analgesic period was extended from 15-240 minutes post-administration of romifidine.

Ten minutes after epidural administration, all buffaloes began to show signs of systemic sedation (mild sedation, score = 1).

Maximal sedative effect occurred between 30and 180 minutes after epidural administration of romifidine.

All buffaloes developed moderate ataxia (score 2) 15-20 minutes following epidural administration of romifidine and it lasted for up to 240 minutes.

All these results provide evidence for a potential cost-effective intra-and postoperative method of analgesia for abdominal and udder surgery in buffaloes, while allowing the patients to remain standing.

Therefore, romifidine might be promising as an analgesic agent for buffaloes even for major abdominal surgery.