As sedation can interfere with pain assessment, especially in the postoperative period, it is also important to use the sedation scale for decision-making regarding the use of analgesics.
Access the topics below to learn about and use the scales.
Abbreviated Scale to assess sedation in dogs – Wagner et al. (2017)
The Abbreviated Sedation Scale was developed after removing the most invasive and/or intrusive items from the original scale (Grint et al., 2009) and is composed of 4 characteristics:
1) Spontaneous posture
2) Eye position
3) Response to noise
4) General appearance/ attitude
Each characteristic has a score between 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4. The behavior that occurs for the longest period during the observation is chosen. The total sum of scores ranges from 0 (no sedation) to 12 (maximum sedation). Please see below the description of the evaluated behaviors.
The examples of behavior referring to each item on the scale do not necessarily correspond to those considered by the authors of the article that developed the scale.
Abbreviated Sedation Scale for dogs
1. Spontaneous posture
Score
Videos
Standing
0
Tired but standing
1
Lying but able to rise
2
Lying but difficulty rising
3
Unable to rise
4
2. Eye position
Score
Videos
Central
0
Rotated forwards/downwards but not obscured by 3rd eyelid
1
Rotated forwards/downwards and obscured by 3rd eyelid
2
3. Response to noise (handclap)
Score
Videos
Normal startle reaction (head turn towards noise/ cringe)
0
Reduced startle reaction (reduced head turn/ minimal cringe)
1
Minimal startle reaction
2
Absent reaction
3
4. General appearence/ attitude
Score
Videos
Excitable
0
Awake and normal
1
Tranquil
2
Stuporous
3
After watching the videos corresponding to all sub-items of each item on the scale, watch the test videos, and analyze and score the behaviors. Then check the responses for each video. You are able to use the scale when your scores are up to 20% higher or lower than the template scores in at least three tests.
After reading and training the previous items, click below to assess sedation in your animal.