Clinical and pathological effects of flunixin meglumine administration to neonatal foals.

This research article studies the effects of different levels of flunixin meglumine dosage, a pain reliever, administered to neonatal foals. It found that higher doses increase gastrointestinal problems without substantial changes in blood chemistry and cellular changes.

Experimental Procedure

• Six two-day-old foals were administered the drug flunixin meglumine at various dosages (0.55, 1.1, 2.2, and 6.6 mg/kg) intravenously for five days.
• Observations were made on the foals health daily and blood samples were collected on days 1, 3 and 6.
• After the sixth day, all the foals were euthanized and their bodies necropsied to check for any lesions resulting from the experiment.

Findings

• The most common clinical abnormality among the foals was diarrhea, but it was not related to the dosage of flunixin meglumine given to them.
• Foals that received the highest dosage of 6.6 mg/kg showed significantly more gastrointestinal ulceration along with greater cecal pathology and scores for cecal petechiation than those given saline.
• Even though the foals from the 6.6 mg/kg group also had greater loss of total protein during the study, this difference was not statistically significant.
• The study did not observe any statistically significant alterations in blood or cellular chemistry because of the administration of flunixin meglumine.
• There were no notable clinicopathological differences spotted between healthy foals treated with the recommended dosage of flunixin meglumine or physiological saline.

Implication

• The study highlights that a higher dosage of flunixin meglumine can potentially lead to gastrointestinal complications in neonatal foals without resulting in significant blood and cellular changes.
• This could imply that while pain management using flunixin meglumine is effective, dosage needs to be carefully managed to avoid causing harm to the gastrointestinal system, especially in neonatal animals.
• Given the lack of significant changes in blood cell count and biochemistry, it implies the major impact of flunixin meglumine is localized to the gastrointestinal system and does not seem to alter the blood constituent factors much.