Abdominal surgery under epidural anaesthesia in calves

Epidural anaesthesia (EA) is widely described for several surgical procedures in cattle [1,2]. It is mainly used for surgeries of perineum, tail or pelvis, but is less frequently described for major abdominal surgery.EA has the advantage of being easy to perform and rapidly metabolized, with limited systemic effects. Furthermore, the use of EA avoids general anaesthesia, which is generally associated with several systemic side effects such as regurgitation, bloating and muscle damage [3]. The aim of this study is to describe laparotomies in calves after the administration of EA in association with local block to evaluate if it is a useful protocol in abdominal surgery of calves. Seventy-one calves referred for gastrointestinal, urogenital and umbilical diseases and that were submitted to exploratory laparotomy under epidural anaesthesia were included in the study. Fifty-three were beef breed,10 were dairy calves, and 8 were crossbreed. Thirty-nine were male and 32 were female with median age of 12 days (range 1-180 days) and median weight of 63 kg (range 30-350 Kg). Thirty-nine out of 71(55%) cases included in the report had omphalitis or urachal problems, 27(38%) calves had gastrointestinal problems and 5(7%) calves had other genitourinary problems. Duration of surgery were recorded in all cases. Only epidural anaesthesia with xylazine/procaine combination was used in 43 calves (61%) and median duration of surgery was 45 minutes. In 28 calves, IV administration of xylazine (0.05 mg/kg) was required to complete the surgical procedure with a median duration of 80 minutes.EA was sufficient to ensure adequate analgesia in most surgeries while in surgery of longer duration, intravenous administration of xylazine was necessary. All calves reached the quadrupedal station without difficulty after surgery. Short-term survival was 88.7%. Three calves underwent intraoperative euthanasia for prediction of poor prognosis due to severe peritonitis and 1 for excessive extension of intestinal pathology. Three calves with atresia coli underwent postoperative euthanasia for peritonitis and postoperative ileus and one calf with omphalitis died postoperatively for severe peritonitis.All discharged animals reached slaughtering age or had a normal reproductive career.EA can be used safely for calf laparotomy, with the advantage of being easy to perform, rapidly metabolized and with limited systemic effects. Complications are limited and rarely associated with anaesthesiologic protocol. [1] Rush J., Stockler J. et al, (2022): Local and Regional Anesthesia in Food Animal. In Lin H.C., Passler T., Clark-Price S.: Farm Animal Anesthesia, Wiley Blackwell, p159-183 [2] Skarda R.T., (1996). Local and regional anesthesia in ruminants and swine. Vet Clin North Am Food Anim Pract; 12:579–626 [3] Kamiloglu, A., Kamiloglu, N.N., Ozturk, S. et al. Clinical assessment of epidural analgesia induced by xylazine-lidocaine combination accompanied by xylazine sedation in calves. Ir Vet J 58, 567 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-0481-58-10-567