Effects of Intravenous Flunixin Meglumine, Phenylbutazone, and Acupuncture on Ocular Pain Scores in the Horse: A Pilot Study.

Zita Makra, Nóra Csereklye, Marian Matas Riera, Richard J McMullen, Kata Veres-Nyéki

Journal of equine veterinary science 2021 Mar

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In this controlled, blinded, randomized block pilot study, the main objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of intravenous flunixin meglumine, phenylbutazone, and acupuncture on ocular pain relief using a multifactorial pain scale in the horse. Four experimental horses underwent corneal epithelial debridement in four sessions, when a randomly selected treatment or a control was used. All horses were pain scored before corneal wounding, then at 18 time points, when 11 parameters were allocated. Differences in the area under the curve of pain scores between the treatment groups were analyzed using a paired t-test. Corneal pain was significantly reduced by the third postoperative day (P = .03) when all 11 parameters were considered. Five ocular signs showed significant differences between treatments and proved to be good indicators of ocular pain. The other parameters (heart rate, corneal touch threshold, respond to palpation, and three behavioral parameters) were determined to be irrelevant when evaluating the degree of pain. When considering the five ocular signs, the lowest pain score was attributed to the flunixin meglumine group (1114), followed by the electroacupuncture group (1356), the phenylbutazone group (1397), and the control group (1580). There were significantly lower pain scores (P = .01) in the flunixin meglumine group when compared with those recorded in the control group during the first 46 hours. Flunixin meglumine was the most effective treatment at reducing ocular pain in the horse. In the future, a reduction in the number of pain score parameters and more precisely defined image evaluation criteria could be used. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Zita Makra, Nóra Csereklye, Marian Matas Riera, Richard J McMullen, Kata Veres-Nyéki. Effects of Intravenous Flunixin Meglumine, Phenylbutazone, and Acupuncture on Ocular Pain Scores in the Horse: A Pilot Study. Journal of equine veterinary science. 2021 Mar;98:103375