The objective of this study was to confirm the effectiveness of Zenalpha when compared to dexmedetomidine in providing sedation and analgesia to facilitate clinical examinations and procedures.
Methods: In this multi-center, positively controlled, randomized, and blinded field study, healthy (ASA I or II), nonbreeding dogs at the age of ≥ 4 months, requiring sedation for non-invasive, non-painful or mildly painful examinations and procedures lasting no more than 45 minutes, were enrolled. Client-owned dogs of various breeds were allocated randomly to treatment groups to receive either medetomidine 1 mg m-2 and vatinoxan 20 mg m-2 (ZEN) or dexmedetomidine 0.5 mg m-2 (DEX) intramuscularly (n = 110 and n = 113, respectively).
The level of sedation was judged subjectively as sufficient or insufficient to attempt or continue the planned procedure at 5-minute intervals until completion. Thereafter, sedation was assessed intermittently until full recovery. Treatment success was based on the evaluation of whether the planned procedure could be appropriately conducted and completed under sedation. Mechanical nociceptive threshold (MNT) testing was performed to assess analgesia prior to and at 15, 30, 60, 120, and 240 minutes post-treatment. Treatment success was analyzed with a generalized linear mixed model. A two-sample t-test was used for sedation and MNT testing.
