Evidence based medicine. In veterinary medicine we are always striving to use ev

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Evidence based medicine.

In veterinary medicine we are always striving to use evidence based medicine and evidence behind what we do. Exotic medicine often has less of this evidence, however as time goes on we are discovering more and more.

We recently designed and ran a study into the effect of temperature of a room vs. The body temperature of anaesthetised rabbits. We did this with rabbits as it’s important to ensure you have a good sample size (amount of animals) in the study to prove statistically your results and rabbits are also more commonly seen in practice than species such as guinea pigs. Our study ran over a year, and took over a year to bring it to publication as this goes through a rigorous peer review by veterinary professionals in the area of medicine. This means that the paper is written out as unbiased as possible and validates the work. Blinded reviewers will pick the paper apart, asking questions and validating statements and claims. This is one of the reasons why medical professionals (human and animal), prefer to rely on professional evidence based work rather than anecdotal evidence (happened to someone once so must be true). Although there is less evidence in the exotic medicine world we are slowly working on it. This clinical ‘on the job’ research takes time and there is much less funds (and time) available to do this in practice so it’s slow going.

Our study showed that temperatures of 28 degrees Celsius actually helped increase temperatures of rabbits undergoing a spay and may help animals undergoing similar surgeries, especially those who are also cold or in shock. The higher room temperature made no difference to castrates (a much less invasive surgery). Hypothermia can be life threatening in anaesthetised pets (especially more common in smaller species) so if we can help combat this with some ways to reduce the risk then it can only be a good thing.
Effect of theatre temperature on body temperature during anaesthesia for routine neutering of domestic rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) - ScienceDirect