Clinicophysiological changes following epidural analgesia by bupivacaine, ropivacaine or ropivacaine-xylazine combination in goats

The study was undertaken to compare the epidural analgesia induced by bupivacaine, ropivacaine and their combination in goats. Six healthy male non-descript goats were subjected to 3 treatments with an interval of 8 days. In treatment I, bupivacaine hydrochloride 1.7 mg/kg b.wt, in treatment II, ropivacaine hydrochloride 0.6 mg/kg b.wt, and in treatment III, a combination of ropivacaine hydrochloride 0.6 mg/kg b.wt and xylazine hydrochloride 0.5 mg/kg were administered simultaneously in the lumbo-sacral epidural space. The clinicophysiological partameters were evaluated at different intervals. The onset of analgesia was faster in treatment III as compared to treatments I and II. Ropivacaine induced longer duration of analgesia than bupivacaine, and ropivacaine-xylazine combination showed some synergistic analgesic effect. The respiratory and pulse rates and rectal tremperature decreased significantly in treatments I and III, and did not change significantly in group II. Results suggested that ropivacaine induced excellent epidural analegesia without affecting the cardio-respiratory function in goats.