Clinico-physiological effects of epidural bupivacaine-xylazine or bupivacaine-butorphanol-xylazine combinations in dogs

The study was conducted to evaluate bupivacaine-xylazine and bupivacaine-butorphanol-xylazine combinations for epidural analgesia in dogs. Eight clinical canine patients were divided into two treatment groups (A and B) comprising of 4 animals each. The animals of group A were given bupivacaine hydrochloride 1 mg/kg b.wt in combination with xylazine HCl 0.5 mg/kg b.wt epidurally at lumbosacral space, while those of group B were given a combination of bupivacaine HCl 1 mg/kg b.wt, butorphanol tartarate 0.2 mg/kg b.wt and xylazine HCl 0.5 mg/kg b.wt epidurally at lumbosacral space. The effect of two treatments in the animals was compared on the basis of clinical, physiological, heamodynamic, haematological and biochemical parameters. In group B, time for onset of analgesia (4.12±0.31 min) was insignificantly (P>0.05) faster in comparison to group A (4.88±0.43 min). Mean duration of sedation did not differ significantly. Complete recovery time was insignificantly (P>0.05) quicker in group A (354.00±9.28 min) than group B (371.50±8.72 min). The results indicated that bupivacaine-xylazine and bupivacaine-xylazinebutorphanol combinations can be used for various clinical interventions and lengthy surgeries without adversely affecting the cardiopulmonary and haemato-biochemical parameters in dogs. Addition of butorphanol to xylazine and bupivacaine provides superior analgesia.