Behavioural alterations due to pain, and analgesic role of meloxicam and rofecoxib in dogs undergoing long bone fracture repair

Twenty dogs undergoing long bone fracture repair were randomly assigned to two equal groups and administered with meloxicam (0.2 mg/kg)/rofecoxib (1.0 mg/kg) i.m. as sole analgesic, half an hour preoperatively and repeated daily for three consecutive days. The study was conducted under double blind conditions. Pain assessment was made adopting a multifactorial numerical rating scale (NRS) with a maximum possible total pain score (MTPS) of 20. All the assessments during postoperative period (extended up to 70 hr) were made in the owner's premises. In both groups the highest and almost equal (8.10 and 8.20, respectively) MTPS was obtained at the beginning of the study. The score in both the groups reduced marginally in the immediate preoperative period (6.40 and 7.70) but drastically at 20 hr (3.10 and 4.20) postoperatively. There was a clear decreasing trend and the mean values obtained at the end of the study (1.00 and 1.30, respectively) were the lowest recorded scores. The MTPS values between the groups did not show significant (P > 0.05) difference at any observation period.