Introduction

• Over the past few years pain treatment in rabbits have quickly increased in importance, and therefore developed. Nevertheless, some areas remain poorly studied and understood.
• Pain is defined by the Committee on Taxonomy for the International Association for the Study of Pain as:
  • "An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage."
• In view of the difficulties in pain recognition, an anthropomorphic view is often applied to rabbit analgesia, where analgesia is provided to an animal undergoing any procedure or pathology that would be expected to cause pain/distress in a human.
• In a 1999 survey on the use of analgesics by British small animal veterinarians, analgesics were administered by 71% of surgeons to dogs and by 56% to cats undergoing laparotomy, only 22% would give small mammals peri-operative analgesia Analgesia Sedation.
• In a more recent survey on the attitude of veterinary surgeons on pain in rabbits, 94.3% of the respondents routinely administered NSAIDs to rabbits undergoing surgical procedures such as neutering, 71.4 % administered an opioid and 70.3 % routinely administered multimodal analgesia.
• Several pain scoring systems are available these days for rabbits. Pain assessment tools should be used during pain management to guide adequate treatment of the rabbit Pain assessment.

Pain management

Local anesthesia

NSAIDs

Opioids

Constant-rate infusion CRI analgesia

Further Reading

Publications

Refereed papers

• Recent references from PubMed and VetMedResource.
• Benato L, Murrell J, Blackwell E et al (2020) Analgesia in pet rabbits: A survey study on how pain is assessed and ameliorated by veterinary surgeons. Vet Rec 186 (18), 603 PubMed.
• Delk K W, Carpenter J W, KuKanich B et al (2014) Pharmacokinetics of meloxicam administered orally to rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) for 29 days. Am J Vet Res 75 (2), 195-199  PubMed.
• Goldschlager G B, Gillespie V L, Palme, R & Baxter M G (2013) Effects of multimodal analgesia with low-dose buprenorphine and meloxicam on fecal glucocorticoid metabolites after surgery in New Zealand White rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci 52 (5), 571-576 PubMed.
• Barter L (2011) Rabbit analgesia. Vet Clin North Am Exot Anim Pract 14 (1), 93-104  PubMed.
• Egger C M, Souza M J, Greenacre C B et al (2009) Effect of intravenous administration of tramadol hydrochloride on the minimum alveolar concentration of isoflurane in rabbits. Am J Vet Res 70 (8), 945-949 PubMed.
• ACLAM Task Force Members, Kohns D F, Martin T E et al (2007) Public statement: guidelines for the assessment and management of pain in rodents and rabbits. J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci 46 (2), 97-108 PubMed.
• Turner P V, Chen H C & Taylor W M (2006) Pharmacokinetics of meloxicam in rabbits after single and repeat oral dosing. Comp Med 56 (1), 63-67 PubMed.
• Flecknell P A (2001) Analgesia of small mammals. Vet Clin North Am Exotic Anim Pract 4 (1), 47-56 PubMed.
• Lascelles B D X, Capner C A & Waterman-Pearson A E (1999) Current British veterinary attitudes to perioperative analgesia for cats and small mammals. Vet Rec 145 (21), 601-604 VetMedResource.
• Ramer J C, Paul-Murphy J & Benson K G (1999) Evaluating and stabilizing critically ill rabbits - Part II. Comp Contin Educ Pract Vet 21 (2), 116-125.
• Morton D B & Griffiths P H (1985) Guidelines on the recognition of pain, distress and discomfort in experimental animals and an hypothesis for assessment. Vet Rec 116 (16), 431-436  PubMed.

Other sources of information

• Quesenberry K E, Orcutt C J, Mans C & Carpenter J W (2021) Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents Clinical Medicine and Surgery. Elsevier, USA.
• Hedley J (2020) Meloxicam. In: BSAVA Small Animal Formulary, Part B: Exotic Pets. BSAVA, UK.
• Flecknell P (2016) Analgesia and Post-Operative Care. In: Laboratory Animal Anesthesia. 4th edn. Academic Press, Elsevier, UK. pp 142-194.
• Flecknell P A & Thomas A A (2015) Comparative Anesthesia and Analgesia of Laboratory Animals. In: Lumb and Jones' Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia. Eds: Grimm K A, Lamont L A, Tranquilli W J, Greene S A & Robertson S A. Wiley Blackwell, USA. pp 754-763.
• Eatwell K (2014) Analgesia, Sedation and Anesthesia. In: Manual of Rabbit Medicine. Eds:  Meredith A & Lord B. BSAVA, UK. pp 138-159. 
• Varga M (2014) Anesthesia and Analgesia. In: Textbook of Rabbit Medicine. 2nd edn. Butterworth-Heinemann, UK. pp 178-202 
• Loeser J D (2001) Bonica's Management of Pain. 3rd edn. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. USA.
• Flecknell P A & Waterman-Pearson A (2000) Pain Management in Animals. W B Saunders, UK.