Epidural lidocaine, butorphanol, and butorphanol – lidocaine combination in dromedary camels

AbstractBackground Hazard of decubitus constrains practicing of general anesthesia in dromedary camels. Caudal epidural analgesia is an appropriate substitute providing loco-regional analgesia for numerous invasive and noninvasive painful conditions. Lidocaine is the most popular local anesthetic in veterinary practice, but of limited analgesic merits. Epidural administration of an opioid - local anesthetic mixture would improve the quality and length of analgesia and minimize the adverse motor effects provoked by local anesthetics. Epidural butorphanol (an opioid) and lidocaine (local anesthetic) mixture was used to improve analgesia in certain animal species, but not in camels. Therefore, our purpose was to investigate the analgesic effects as well as the clinical and hemato-biochemical profiles produced by the epidural administration of butorphanol (0.04 mg/kg), lidocaine (0.22 mg/ kg), and butorphanol-lidocaine (0.04 mg/kg − 0.22 mg/ kg) mixture in nine adult dromedary camels through a crossover experimental study. Results The beginning of analgesia was not significantly different between lidocaine (6.5 ± 2.3 min) and butorphanol-lidocaine (7.3 ± 1.5 min) mixture. Delayed onset of analgesia was reported after butorphanol administration (14.7 ± 3.5 min). Butorphanol-lidocaine mixture produced significant longer duration (175 ± 8.7 min) than lidocaine (55 ± 6.8 min) and butorphanol (158 ± 5.3 min). Butorphanol–lidocaine treated animals showed mild sedation and slight locomotor disturbances. A transient significant rise in glucose levels was observed after all treatments. Conclusions Epidural administration of butorphanol augments the analgesic effects and duration of lidocaine with minimal adverse effects.