Post-operative pain.

There are currently no published studies concerning the duration of postoperative pain in animals that have undergone surgical procedures. At the present time, there are also no guidelines governing the administration of analgesic medications to laboratory animals. This leaves agencies without a guideline of regulations concerning postoperative analgesics. This MQP, completed with Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine (TUSVM), will help to accomplish this by monitoring and scoring the behaviors of clinical dogs following specific surgical procedures. Our data will help to ensure that animals receive postoperative analgesia for the appropriate amount of time. It will also provide researchers with an assessment standard, in that excessive or prolonged amounts of pain in postoperative animals may indicate infection or improper tissue handling. This data from this MQP indicates that pain is not always treated for as many hours post-surgically as necessary. It is the recommendation of the researchers that titrated doses of analgesics be administered to patients for a minimum of 48 hours post-operatively