Relação entre temperatura timpânica, cortisolemia e o estado emocional em gatos domésticos (Felis catus) / The relations among tympanic temperature, cortisolemie and the emotions in domestic cats (Felis catus)

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

The cat is interesting specie for studies of emotions due to its stoic behavior and to its physiological particularities. Cats easily get stressed. Routine procedures as exposition to an unknown environment can produce stress in these animals. A traditional indicator of stress is the serice cortisol, the main glicocorticoid of felines. The relation between psychological stress and glicocorticoids in cats is little explored in scientific literature. The body temperature has been studied as indicator of emotions in man and animals. It is suggested that the emotion affects mainly the tympanic temperature, due to greater activity in one brain hemisphere in relation to the other. The rectal temperature would not have the same efficiency to detect modifications of emotions. A study with two groups of cats in different situations was made aiming at relating the plasmatic cortisol, tympanic and rectal temperatures to the stress in routine veterinary procedures. In a study, 13 adult cats, of both sex, neutered, remained in individual jails during six hours, in the internment division of the Veterinary Hospital of Brasilia University. After this period it was measured the right tympanic temperature (RTT), left tympanic temperature (LTT) and rectal temperature (RT) followed immediately by venopunction for measuring glycemia and cortisol. In another study, 23 male adult cats, not castrated, remained for six hours inside of transport boxes, in a quiet room of the Integrated Laboratory of the University of Brasília. Soon after, the animals were released in another room with enrichment e their behavior observed during two sequencies of 15 minutes, with and without Elizabethan-colar. In the interval and at the end, the cats were restrained, their temperature measured and they were venipuncioted, with the same analytical objective of the first study. In both studies, the tympanic temperatures were lower than the RT, but they all correlate. The thermic dynamics of the RTT was related to the stress, when it lowered. In the second study, the RT was related to the stress of the Elizabethan-colar. The dynamics of the LTT correlated to the glycemia, when it lowered, in the second study. There was a relation between stress and thermic dynamics in cats. The results are in accordance with the principle of Selective Cooling Brain, considering that the tympanic temperatures reflect, in certain proportion, the stress and the wellfare in some mammals. The behavior of cats under intense stress presented asymmetrical relations to the thermic physiology and to the endocrine physiology. In domestic cats, routine activities as simple hospital internment, change of environment and restraint in transport boxes, can stimulate defense mechanisms similar to the ones studied in humans, as thermic body alteration and alteration of the endocrine metabolism.

ASSUNTO(S)

estresse neuroetologia felis catus cortisol etologia cortisol ethology ciencias biologicas thermometry stress felis catus termometria

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