Evaluation of pain relieving of low dose of ketamine and tramadol accompanied by local anesthesia in cats undergoing bone marrow aspiration

Objectives: Bone marrow aspiration (BMA) introduces as a diagnostic approach for abnormal peripheral blood counts and also and is essential for diagnosing many disorders in cats. Appropriate pain management in BMA of small animals especially in cats reduces moderate and occasionally sever pain.Materials Methods: This study compared analgesic effects of a sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine (5 mg/kg, IM) and tramadol (4 mg/kg, IM) while administrated 10 minutes before infiltration of lidocaine (2%). Also, femur bone marrow aspiration performed in 10 stray mature female cats [Ketmine+lidocaine (KL) G (n=5) and Tramadol+lidocaine (TL) G (n=5)]. Analgesic effects of each groups were evaluated prior to BMA, concurrent with BMA and 1 and 5 hours after aspiration with subjective pain scale, physiologic parameters, serum concentrations of cortisol and glucose. Results conclusion: Results showed Heart rate (HR) did not change in different times in TLG in contrast with KLG in which HR increased following administration of ketamine in different times. Also, BMA did not change the HR in this group like TLG. But, the respiratory rate and rectal temperature decreased significantly just after injection of ketamine and tramadol and before performing BMA compared to base values level in both groups (P 0.05). Fortunately, the serum cortisol levels and values of plasma glucose in both groups showed no noticeable changes at time of doing BMA and post-BMA. Clinical evaluation confirmed sedative effects of both low-dose of ketamine and tramadol (P 0.05) in performing BMA in cats. But, clinical analgesic and sedative effects of KLG was more obvious and acceptable during BMA and at 1 hours after performing BMA (P 0.05). The clinical and laboratory findings of the present experiment well demonstrated the analgesic efficacy of ketamine and tramadol in combination with local anesthesia especially ketamine that would improve harsh behavior and temperament of cats while doing bone marrow aspiration,