• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.189-194
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• 2001

The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-stress effect of xylazine on rope-restrained stress using cattle. For this study we utilized biotelemetrical methods such as body temperature, heart rate and blood analysis. Twelve cows were divided into two groups as an only rope restrained group (control) and as rope-restrain+xylazine (0.05 mg/kg, IV) treated group (experimental group). Each group was under experimental environments for 24 hours before initiation of stress. The body temperature and the heart rate were checked every 5 minutes for 24 hours in two groups. We found that the core body temperature in the experimental group was higher than that of control group. We also found hat the heart rate in experimental group was significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of control group for 90 minutes after 30 minutes of rope-restrained stress. The level of the plasma cortisol of experimental group was significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of control group for 90 minutes after the rope-restrained stress was given. We performed the blood analysis to know whether rope-restrained stress affects RBC, WBC, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and platelet values or not but we could not find the significant difference between control and experimental groups. These results suggest that the administration of xylazine might partially help to reduce rope-restrained stress in cattle.