Avaliação do efeito do estresse na produção lacrimal de gatos hígidos

Abstract

Stress is the body's response to a stressful stimulus that threatens its homeostasis. A series of physiological and behavioral responses are triggered from the perception of the threat. Some authors suggest that, in feline species, acute stress temporarily reduces tear production. It is known that a simple visit to the veterinarian is capable of inducing anxiety and stress in domestic cats. Therefore, the Schirmer tear test (STT) has little reliability in the species. The objective of this study was to verify the influence that acute stress can exert on tear production, in order to provide bases for the indication of minimization of stressful stimuli during ophthalmic evaluation, thus establishing the effectiveness of STT in the quantitative evaluation of tears. Twenty-four healthy cats, 12 males and 12 females, mixed breed, aged between 8 months and 6 years, with no history of eye diseases, were selected. The animals were housed for 6 days in individual boxes/catteries, under a controlled environment. The STT I were performed in the morning (between 9 am and 11 am) and the tapes belonged to the same batch. The first test (without stressor stimulus) was performed on the fifth day of s ambience and the second test (with stressor stimulus) on the sixth day. For the stressor stimulus, recordings of dogs barking, cats fighting and people's noise at 70dB were used. For the two tests, the heart rate was evaluated with the aid of a stethoscope before, during and after the performance of the same, as well as the evaluation of the environmental stress. It was observed that the median STT was higher during the stress intervention compared to the non-stress period (U= 173, p= 0.0166). The same pattern of median differences is seen for heart rate (U= 105.5, p= <0.001) and ambient score (U= 5, p < 0.001). It was concluded that stress is capable of increasing tear production in cats. Although the values obtained in the STT I during the stress intervention are within normal limits, it is believed that this situation may mask a possible quantitative deficiency of the tear film. Cat friendly maneuvers facilitate the examination, make the animals calmer and contribute to more reliable STT values.