Salivary cortisol concentrations and behavior in a population of healthy dogs hospitalized for elective procedures
Open accessAbstract
Identification of severe stress in hospitalized veterinary patients may improve treatment outcomes and welfare. To assess stress levels, in Study 1, we collected salivary cortisol samples and behavioral parameters in 28 healthy dogs hospitalized prior to elective procedures. Dogs were categorized into two groups; low cortisol (LC) and high cortisol (HC), based on the distribution of cortisol concentrations (< or ≥ 0.6 µg/dL). We constructed a stress research tool (SRT) based on three behaviors, (head resting, panting and lip licking) that were most strongly related to salivary cortisol concentrations. In Study 2, we collected salivary cortisol samples from 39 additional dogs, evaluated behavior/cortisol relationships, assigned each dog to an LC or HC group, and tested the ability of the SRT to predict salivary cortisol. Median (interquartile range) salivary cortisol concentrations were not different between Study 1 (0.43 µg/dL, 0.33 to 1.00 µg/dL) and Study 2 dogs (0.41 µg/dL, 0.28 to 0.52 µg/dL). The median salivary cortisol concentration was significantly lower (P ≤ 0.001) in LC versus HC dogs in each study; (Study 1 LC: 0.38 µg/dL, (0.19 to 0.44), n = 19, HC: 2.0 µg/dL, (1.0 to 2.8), n = 9, and Study 2 LC: 0.35 µg/dL, (0.25 to 0.48), n = 28, HC: 0.89 µg/dL, (0.66 to 1.4), n = 7). In Study 1, three behaviors were found to be associated with salivary cortisol concentrations. Duration of head resting was negatively associated with salivary cortisol (ρ = -0.60, P = 0.001), panting and lip licking were positively associated with cortisol (ρ = 0.39, P = 0.04, and 0.30, P = 0.05, respectively), Head resting (p = 0.001) and panting (p = 0.003) were also associated with LC/HC group assignment. In Study 2 dogs, the three behaviors correlated (but not significantly) with salivary cortisol concentration; of the three, only head resting was significantly associated with LC/HC group assignment (P = 0.03). The SRT derived from Study 1 was effective at prediction of salivary cortisol concentrations when applied to 20 min but not 2 min of behavioral data from Study 2. Additionally, we note that dexmedetomidine and butorphanol sedation more than 6 h prior to measurement was found to be significantly (P = 0.05) associated with lower salivary cortisol concentrations when compared to unsedated dogs. Our work offers support for eventual construction of a rating tool that utilizes the presence or absence of specific behaviors to identify higher salivary cortisol concentrations in dogs subjected to hospitalization, which may be tied to greater psychogenic stress levels. Future work to investigate the effects of stress on dogs and its mitigation in clinical situations may be approached by studying a combination o f parameters, and should consider the possible beneficial effects of sedatives.
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Panting has been correlated with increased salivary cortisol concentrations, representative of increased sympatho-medullary-adrenal axis activity, in the hospital setting.
“Panting has been correlated with increased salivary cortisol concentrations, representative of increased sympatho-medullary-adrenal axis activity, in the hospital setting.9”
From Evaluation of the effects of hospital visit stress on physiologic variables in dogs (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
The Results (section 3.1; page not provided) report a positive correlation between panting and salivary cortisol in hospitalized dogs (ρ = 0.39, P = 0.04). The Introduction discusses cortisol in relation to stress-axis measures but does not establish that the observed cortisol increase represents increased sympatho-medullary-adrenal (SAM) axis activity. The panting correlation was also not statistically significant in Study 2 (Results, section 3.2). (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe results most likely stemmed from activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
“These results most likely stemmed from the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and should be taken into account when assessing patients in the veterinary hospital setting.4,8,9”
From Evaluation of the effects of hospital visit stress on physiologic variables in dogs (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
The Introduction mentions the sympatho-medullary-adrenal axis as one way to evaluate stress, while the Discussion relates the study’s findings to salivary cortisol and behavior. Neither section attributes the reported results to activation of the sympathetic nervous system; searches for that mechanism found no such passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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Evaluation of the effects of hospital visit stress on physiologic variables in dogs
Bragg, R. F., Bennett, J. S., Cummings, A., & Quimby, J. M. (2015) · Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association · doi:10.2460/javma.246.2.212 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
- Authors
- Hekman, J. P., Karas, A. Z., & Dreschel, N. A.
- Affiliations
- Tufts University (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Karas, Alicia Z.
- Venue
- Applied Animal Behaviour Science
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-11
- Volume
- 141
- Issue
- 3-4
- Pages
- 149-157
- ISSN
- 0168-1591 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3817620
- OpenAlex
- W2078701740
- Cited by
- 105
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 6.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Applied Animal Behaviour Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Center for Research Resources
- U.S. Army
- National Institutes of Health (T32 RR018267)
- Office of Research Infrastructure Programs, National Institutes of Health
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Veterinary Pharmacology and Anesthesia
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- Keywords
- salivary cortisol, canine stress, hospitalized dogs, elective procedures, panting, lip licking, stress biomarkers
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