Evaluation of Stress Scores of Healthy Adult Cats during Barometric Whole-Body Plethysmography and Its Correlation with Measurement Parameters.

Simple Summary: The stress load of cats undergoing lung function diagnostics using barometric whole-body plethysmography has not yet been investigated. In this study, a feline stress score was used to determine the stress level of healthy cats over a 30 min time period during plethysmographic measurement; in addition, the correlation with measured parameters was evaluated. The stress levels of the majority of the 48 cats studied were increased at the beginning of measurements and decreased significantly over time. There was a significant correlation between most measurement parameters and the total stress score. Although the barometric whole-body plethysmography is considered to be a particularly gentle method, most cats initially experienced moderate stress. The stress level must be taken into account when interpreting the measured parameters. Barometric whole-body plethysmography (BWBP) is considered to be a particularly gentle method of assessing lung function in cats. However, there have been no studies to date investigating the stress experienced by cats during measurements. The prospective study included 48 healthy adult cats. Each cat was measured in the plethysmographic chamber for a total of 30 min and stress levels were determined every 10 min using a stress ethogram. At the beginning of measurements, 75% of cats were assessed as tense. Over the three time periods, a significant (p < 0.001) reduction in the total stress score was observed. In addition, all measurement parameters correlated significantly with the stress score, with the exception of enhanced pause and tidal volume. It can therefore be assumed that cats will initially experience stress during examination in the plethysmographic chamber, but stress will decrease significantly over time. As the stress level correlates with many measurement parameters, this should be taken into account when interpreting the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]