Pre-operative stress in dogs - a preliminary investigation of behavior and heart rate variability in healthy hospitalized dogs

The different individual responses detected in this study raise an important question concerning their role and existence throughout the entire peri-operative period, especially during the post-anesthetic recovery phase when behavioral characteristics are commonly used to assess patient welfare. The results also emphasize the need for further investigations to explore the effects of pre-operative stressors on canine surgical patients, and the factors contributing to them.