Reptile Face Masks Preliminary Design Report October 7 2005 Team Members Katy Reed Team Leader Kristen Seashore Communicator Steve Skroch BWIG Janelle Anderson BSAC Client Kurt Sladky DVM Professor School of Veterinary Medicine Advisor Professor Walter Block Table of Contents Abstract Problem Statement Background Research on Corn Snakes and Bearded Dragons Reptile Breathing Opioids and Reptiles Pneumotachometry Current Methods Design Considerations Design Constraints Client s Suggested Materials Competition Alternate Designs First Full Head Design Second Full Head Design Nose Mask Design Nose Plugs Design Design Matrix Final Design Design Overview Corn Snake Mask Bearded Dragon Mask Competition VS Alternate Designs Testing Results Future Work Ethical and Intellectual Property Concerns Conclusion Appendixes References Protocol PDR Anything else data drawings etc from 1st paper Abstract The object of the project is to construct two air tight masks for a corn snake and Bearded dragon that can be attached to a pneumotachometer so the affects of opiates on reptile respiration can me measured The masks should be non invasive and comfortable for the test subjects while being easy to use and clean for the researchers Problem Statement Dr Kurt Sladky and Dr Steven Johnson work in the Department of Surgical Sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Madison They have teamed up on a research project to examine the effects of opiates on various reptiles including turtles corn snakes and bearded dragons Specifically they hope to obtain useful information regarding species respiratory frequencies and response to pain and use this data to enhance reptilian veterinary practices and surgeries They are currently running experiments with turtles but cannot begin testing the corn snakes and bearded dragons without functional face masks to collect respiratory data Our clients need two masks one for use on corn snakes and the other for use on bearded dragons that consistently and efficiently function with their pneumotachograph in measuring respiratory rates Our goal this semester is to create two face masks one suitable for use on corn snakes and the other for use on bearded dragons that meet client needs and produce consistent results There are currently designs for small animal anesthesia masks on the market but no designs for pneumotachograph masks These pneumotachograph masks will fit snugly on these reptiles to create an air tight seal thus allowing respiratory rate measurements to be collected using a pneumotachograph Problem Statement Dr Kurt Sladky and Dr Steve Johnson are investigating the effects of opioids on reptile respiration and pain response latency Very little research has been done on the effects of opioids on reptiles and it is not known which drugs reduce pain suppress breathing or both Our clients have already collected relevant data for aquatic turtles but they lack a device to collect pneumotachometric data from terrestrial reptiles Two devices for a Corn Snake and two devices for a Bearded Dragon are required Background Research on Corn Snakes and Bearded Dragons Corn snakes have smooth even skin and narrow heads The size or a corn snakes head does not increase proportionally to the body Snakes can also dislocate their jaws Bearded dragons have very spiky skin on the sides of the head and prominent brow ridges on the top of the head the skull is also much wider than the neck Bearded dragons can breathe through their mouths if their nose is blocked Reptile Breathing At rest most reptiles breathe very infrequently A turtle may breathe only once every eight hours and even less with Opoids The masks must therefore be expected to be in continuous use for several days at a time Reptiles are cold blooded and tend to have much lower metabolisms then warm blooded animals Reptiles tend to store energy as glucose in the blood stream and use this glucose for anaerobic without oxygen metabolism when muscle movements are needed McCluskey This gives an overall lower metabolic rate saving energy and allowing for longer periods without food and allows the reptile to go longer then mammals without oxygen The downside is that reptiles are constrained to short bursts of movement and are not able to keep activity up for as long as a similar sized mammal Opoids and Reptiles The effects of opioids on reptiles are widely unknown even though opioids are commonly used for pain treatment in both laboratory and research settings 7 The reptile s response to opioid derivatives depends on which receptors or the species has and which receptors the specific opioid activates Pain and breathing suppression are both effects of opioids on reptiles but they are not dependent on each other For instance the reptile may not have any pain suppression yet have severely suppressed breathing Our client hypothesizes that breathing suppression is linked to and opioid receptor activation They plan to test this hypothesis by using butorphanol tartrate morphine sulfate oxymorphone hydromorphone DAMGO a specific opioid agonist DPDPE a specific opioid agonist and U69593 a specific opioid agonist 7 Pheumotachometry Pneumotachometry is a method used to measure the frequency tidal volume and peak air flow of breathing in animals and humans A pressure difference exists between the two sides of a semipermeable resistive membrane Figure 3 The high pressure on one side of the membrane forces the air to flow to the low pressure zone on the other side of the membrane This air flow is directly proportional to the resistance of the membrane The equation that governs this relationship is P QR where P is the pressure difference Q is the air flow and R is the resistance of the membrane to air flow 8 Since we cannot directly measure air flow we must measure the pressure difference By hooking a simple differential pressure transducer up to the two sides of the membrane we can obtain this measurement A sample reading from a pneumotachometer is shown in Figure 4 Figure 3 Pneumotachograph Schematic 8 Figure 4 Data from a Pneumotachometer The peaks represent the tidal volume and the distance between the peaks represents the time between the breaths 6 Current Methods Current Device At this time our client does not have any kind of device to use on the Corn Snakes or Bearded Dragons In their grant proposal the clients discussed using the end of a plastic 50 mL centrifuge tube for the device however they had no set
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