Antiemetic effect of dexamethasone in dogs sedated with medetomidine

Antiemetic effect of dexamethasone in dogs sedated with medetomidine was evaluated. On the day of experiment, five minutes prior to medetomidine (40 μg/kg, 1M) injection, dexamethasone was administered intravenously at the doses of 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg. Control group was received at 0.1 ml/kg of saline instead of dexamethasone. The dose of 0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg of dexamethasone significantly reduced emetic episode. The degree of sedation determined by visual sedation scoring was not influenced by dexamethasone pretreatments. In addition, the values of complete blood counts and blood chemistry did not show significant changes and were within normal ranges before and the day after experiment. These results show that the doses of 0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg of dexamethasone are useful and safe method to prevent emetic episode inducing by medetomidine in dogs, without evidence of any clinically relevant influences.