Serum corticol and physiological responses of goats (Capra hircus) during celiotomy under regional and electroacupuncture analgesia

The effectivity of analgesia produced by electroacupuncture and regional analgesia using local anesthetics for celiotomy in goats was tested using serum cortisol, heart rate, respiratory rate, rectal temperature and pain responses as bases. Mean pretreatment cortisol (6.57 ng/ml) and reference range (4.57-8.57 ng/ml) for cortisol level were derived and used as a standard to indicate variation in cortisol levels before, during, and after celiotomy. For both groups, cortisol level before surgery was within the reference range. Cortisol levels during and after surgery were observed to be higher than the maximum limit of the reference range. When compared to the mean pretreatment level, cortisol levels before, during and after surgery were significantly higher. Heart and respiratory rate of goats in both groups were slightly elevated before the start of surgery and significantly increased during surgery and slightly decreased after the procedure. Rectal temperature was maintained within the normal range throughout the study. It was highest before surgery and significantly declined after surgery. Between the two groups, no significant differences were observed in serum cortisol, heart rate, respiratory rate and rectal temperature before, during and after surgery. Based on pain response, all of the animals under regional analgesia had excellent analgesia while for electroacupuncture analgesia, one, one and three animals, had excellent, good and fair analgesia respectively. No complications were noted in both groups. With these results, it is concluded that the use of electroacupuncture analgesia for the performance of celiotomy in goats is comparable to that of regional analgesia using local anesthetics based on serum cortisol, heart rate, respiratory rate and rectal temperature but not on pain response