Pain scores did not significantly differ among treatment groups (ie, carprofen once, grapiprant once, grapiprant every 12 hours), and scores at 3 hours after surgery were higher than scores at 24 hours in all groups. Significantly more cats required rescue analgesia in both grapiprant groups (14 out of 21 cats [67%]) compared with the carprofen group (2 out of 11 cats [18%]). Glucose increased from baseline at 1 hour in both grapiprant groups. No other variables differed among the groups. Leukocytosis, presumably associated with inflammation, was noted 12 hours postoperatively in all groups. Grapiprant administered every 12 hours did not result in observed benefits.
These results suggest oral grapiprant administration prior to ovariohysterectomy did not provide adequate postoperative analgesia at 3 hours in cats. Preliminary investigations in dogs indicated grapiprant may be comparable with carprofen for analgesia following ovariohysterectomy, but sample sizes were limited, and further studies are necessary.4
Although results suggest carprofen may be preferrable to grapiprant for acute postoperative pain in cats, 2 out of 11 cats in the carprofen group required rescue analgesia, indicating carprofen alone may also be inadequate postoperatively in cats, including after ovariohysterectomy. Multimodal pain management is thus highly recommended; pre-emptive or preventive analgesia, continuous and overlapping pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies (including agents with different mechanisms of action), and matching the analgesic plan to the degree of injury or surgery should be considered.1