Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Assessing and measuring post-operative pain in all animals is a challenge, but doing it in small mammals, for example guinea pigs, presents an even larger difficulty. Validated pain scales developed for use in dogs in clinical practice are currently available, but no such scale has been widely accepted for use in guinea pigs in the veterinary setting. In this experimental study, six guinea pigs that had undergone surgery and anaesthesia were observed for behavioural changes that could be associated with pain. The six guinea pigs were also given pain scores with the use of Colorado State University Feline Acute Pain Scale (CSU-APSF), a scale which uses both behaviour when not handled, body tension and response to palpation to evaluate pain intensity. The six guinea pigs showed a number of different behaviours, for example rigid posture, fixed stare and “wet dog response” (the body is vigourosly shaken), that could be associated with pain. The pain scale was able to acknowledge some of these signs; guinea pigs were given pain scores from three different levels in the five-level scale. However, the scale was not able to discover subtle changes in the guinea pigs’ behaviour, such as stiffening upon palpation. This could explain why the scale did not differentiate all five pain levels. Also, the scale included some signs of pain that the guinea pigs did not show, for example aggression or vocalization. As a conclusion, a suggestion for a new pain scale is presented. This modified pain scale includes some of the behavioural changes the guinea pigs in this study showed, that in litterature and previous studies are considered signs of pain, and excludes those behaviours that did not correlate with the guinea pigs’ actual behaviour. More research is needed to validate the suggested pain scale, and to confirm certain behaviours as pain-related.