Pain management in rabbits

RE: Pain management in rabbits

Mark Rowland — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 21:02:16 GMT

For Rabbits I go at 10mg/kg bid.

Analgesia evaluation in prey species is notoriously hard. We have to go with what we perceive in the absence of studies (esp more than 6 animals as DM has referred to in his reference).

I have found that this dose plus other analgesics have provided good analgesia in ileus cases and surgical cases in terms of return to eating and normal gut activity. The dose is variable amongst exotic mammals. G pigs and chins would be very heavily sedated at this dose so as not to eat at all.

Goodluck

Mark

RE: Pain management in rabbits

David Mills — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 20:31:23 GMT

Paracetamol is apparently effective in rabbits, but what dose is best seems somewhat controversial. The BSAVA Exotics formulary says 200-500mg/kg are 'often quoted' but analgesic effects are seen at 10-15mg/kg so who knows.

What is the thought process around tramadol? AFAIK the analgesic dose in rabbits has not been reported, and 11mg/kg has been shown to not reach plasma concentrations of tramadol or its derivatives that would provide analgesia in humans for an acceptable period of time.

RE: Pain management in rabbits

Charlotte Marshall — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 22:56:44 GMT

I use bid meloxicam in these and i have used tramadol liquid

RE: Pain management in rabbits

Bibs — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 11:11:14 GMT

Hi,

I've just acquired a 10 year old rabbit patient that is is being treated for OA with long term daily oral meloxicam at 0.58mg/kg SID. I had to review the rabbit due to increased lameness over the last couple of days.

As far as pain relief options goes has anything changed in the last few years? I was thinking about increasing the meloxicam dose to 1mg/kg SID in the short term but maybe after reading this I'm better off increasing the frequency to BID + lowering the dose instead and adding in tramadol (assume you get oral liquid?) if needed. Any thoughts?

RE: Pain management in rabbits

Hannah Wynne Richards — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 19:43:54 GMT

Marie's advice on rabbits is always worth listening to.

Wynne

RE: Pain management in rabbits

alison silvester — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 14:36:42 GMT

Thanks Marie will give that a try

RE: Pain management in rabbits

Marie Kubiak — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 14:32:50 GMT

Hi,

BID metacam is definitely a good idea - the plasma levels peak at about 7hrs but decline to near zero by 24hrs. We find that 0.4mg/kg bid seems to work quite well in our chronically painful bunnies, and we add in tramadol 10mg/kg bid-tid as needed. If tramadol gives sedation then oral buprenorphine is an alternative.

If acute deterioration is noted I give 2mg/kg ketamine as a one off and this seems to help reduce the wind up effect and get back to the chronic state.

Bone density decrease is more likely to be associated with disuse and demineralisation for this reason rather than dietary deficiency but a serum calcium level can be easily checked and we include ca, phos, urea, TP and PCV as our basic renal monitoring for bunnies on long term NSAIDS as standard so two good reasons to check it!

Marie