Comparison of medetomidine-morphine and medetomidine-methadone for sedation, isoflurane requirement and postoperative analgesia in dogs undergoing laparoscopy

At the dose used, sedation produced by both drugs when combined with medetomidine was equivalent, while volatile anaesthetic requirements and PR perioperatively were lower with methadone. Postoperative analgesia was deemed to be adequate for laparoscopy with either protocol, although methadone provided better analgesia 3 hours after surgery.