Effect of post-operative clothing, bandage, and collar application on stress after ovariohysterectomy in cats

Abstract

Ovariohysterectomy is a common surgical procedure in veterinary medicine, not only for reproductive control butalso for conditions like pyometra, metritis, mammary tumors, and other reproductive disorders. Pain in cats occurs asa response of the body and is accompanied by various physiological and behavioral changes. Pain in cats, thoughprevalent, is often under-recognized and inadequately treated. The Glasgow pain scale is a psychometrically designedtool for assessing acute pain in veterinary patients. Serotonin (5-HT), a biogenic monoamine derived from tryptophan,functions as a mood-regulating neurotransmitter and may decrease following surgical interventions. This study aimedto evaluate post-operative pain and stress levels in female cats using the Glasgow pain scale and serum 5-HTmeasurements after different wound protection methods: bandage, Elizabethan collar, and postoperativeclothing. A total of 60 healthy female cats aged 1–5 years, pre-treated for internal and external parasites, wererandomly assigned into three equal groups. The same anesthetic, surgical, and postoperative care protocols wereapplied across all groups. As a result of this study, it was revealed with the Glasgow pain scale and 5-HT serotoninvalues that the use of collars in the postoperative period caused more stress in cats (p<0.05). In addition, the use ofpost-operative wound protection corset/clothing caused less stress than collars and bandages, as demonstrated bythe Glasgow pain scale and 5-HTserotonin values (p<0.05).