Assessment of discomfort in rats with hepatomegaly

An attempt was made to assess discomfort in rats with hepatomegaly induced by feeding a high cholesterol, high cholate diet. After 8 weeks, the rats displayed a more than two-fold increase in liver weight when compared with controls fed a commercial diet. In a small open field test, behaviour of rats with hepatomegaly was similar to the controls. Of 9 parameters scored per rat, only the response to pressure on the right hypochondrium (tension of overlying muscles) scored higher than in control animals. There was considerable between-assessor variation in the assignment of scores. It is suggested, tentatively, that hepatomegaly in rats caused by cholesterol plus cholate feeding, may not cause extreme discomfort. Upon 'blind' palpation of control and test rats, an average of 60% of the rats with hepatomegaly were classified correctly.