Here's a potentially dumb question that I have always wondered that hasn't directly come up in schooling yet...I realize that doing general anesthesia on a 2-3 day old puppy for a tail dock or dew claw is not a good idea. Can you do any sort of local anesthesia instead?
I've been reading about pain in neonates and discovered that up until the 1970s, it was accepted practice to give neonates in need of surgery immobilizing drugs only, no anesthetic. It was a commonly held belief that the infants' pain sensory system (I'm sure there's a more techincal term that I'm missing) wasn't well developed enough to feel the pain. Then a doc specializing in neonatal care started seeing these infants coming back from surgery grey and in very obvious distress. So I think he began the changes in accepted practice. Anyway, there is a really interesting article published in 1987 that debunks the idea that neonates feel little or no pain:
http://www.cirp.org/library/pain/anand/
And here's another interesting link:
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/dec01/s121501j.asp
From the conclusions:
"Numerous lines of evidence suggest that even in the human fetus, pain pathways as well as cortical and subcortical centers necessary for pain perception are well developed late in gestation, and the neurochemical systems now known to be associated with pain transmission and modulation are intact and functional. Physiologic responses to painful stimuli have been well documented in neonates of various gestational ages and are reflected in hormonal, metabolic, and cardiorespiratory changes similar to but greater than those observed in adult subjects. Other responses in newborn infants are suggestive of integrated emotional and behavioral responses to pain and are retained in memory long enough to modify subsequent behavior patterns."
"...current knowledge suggests that humane considerations should apply as forcefully to the care of neonates and young, nonverbal infants as they do to children and adults in similar painful and stressful situations."
It is my understanding that this revolutionized neonatal anesthesia and now there is discussion about fetal pain. (I don't want to open that can of worms...it's a slippery slope to the choice/life debate, just thought I'd mention that.)
I, personally, don't think the argument should hold for any complex animal (dogs, cats) that they don't feel the pain and it has no impact so it's ok to do tail dockings etc. without anesthetic. I've only seen a few done, as well as some pig castrations, but I think this practice is seriously in need of re-evaluation.
Not that I am necessarily against these procedures at all (it just depends), but I think that in order to do them humanely, anesthetic should always need to be incorporated. What I'm unsure about is how that could be incorporated into production animal medicine...how do you castrate hundreds of pigs efficiently if you need to give some anesthetic to all? Still, I think vets need to seriously consider this.
