Differences in blood glucose increase between horses receiving xylazine and detomidine for surgical and non-surgical clinical procedures

Abstract

The aim of this prospective randomized clinical study was to compare blood glucose and cortisol levels between horses receiving xylazine and detomidine for surgical and non-surgical procedures. Horses from non-surgical groups received 0.5 mg/kg of xylazine (GX group, n=5) or 0.01 mg/kg of detomidine (GD group, n=5) for gastroscopic examination. Horses from the surgical groups received similar doses of xylazine (AX group, n=7) or detomidine (AD group, n=7), followed by anesthetic induction with 2 mg/kg of ketamine and 0.05 mg/kg of diazepam for an arthroscopic procedure under isoflurane anesthesia. Blood samples were obtained prior to the alpha-2 agonist administration (baseline) and after 10, 30, 60 and 90 minutes. All groups had a significant increase in blood glucose from 30 to 90 minutes after alpha-2 agonist administration, compared to baseline. After receiving the alpha-2 agonist, the AD group had blood glucose levels (118-150 mg/dL) significantly higher than GD (99-119 mg/dL) and AX (97-116 mg/dL) groups. Cortisol had no significant changes within a group. However, the AX group had cortisol levels (3.6-3.7 mg/dL) significantly lower than GX group (5.4-5.7 mg/dL) from 30 to 90 minutes after xylazine administration. We concluded that blood glucose levels were when detomidine was administered for surgical procedure, compared to xylazine also for surgical procedure, and non-surgical procedure. Serum cortisol was minimally affected by administration of xylazine and detomidine regardless procedures were surgical or non-surgical.