The ultrasound sessions were done once a week but due to a miscarriage and the lack of new pregnancies in two successive months, this interval was changed to every two weeks for two months. During the ultrasound sessions in this period a great stress was observed in the pacas due to capture and hair clipping and no other pregnancy happening was observed.
It was decided to enlarge the time interval between consecutive sessions, changing to one session a month. In the first session after this period three pregnant pacas were observed, which were followed-up with ultrasound until parturition.
Trying to lessen even more the stress due to the used procedures, besides preserving the normal development of the three occurred pregnancies, the tranquilization of the females was adopted with the use of diazepam (Diazepam caziTM, Cazi Química Farmacêutica, Indústria e Comércio Ltda®, Brazil); one tranquilizer tablet, containing 10 g of the active ingredient, was placed inside a piece of fruit (mostly bananas) which was offered the animal half hour before the capture for ultrasound. Therefore some animals were reluctant to ingest the food with the tablet, being necessary to remove the fruits from the animals diet one day before the ultrasound session, causing them to be eager to eat these fruits and consequently the tablet on the expected day.
After about 4 months, some animals started to present a non-satisfactory tranquilization with the use of diazepam and it was opted for the use of another tranquilizer, the midazolam maleate (DormonidTM, Roche Produtos Químicos e Farmacêuticos S.A.®, Brazil) in tablets containing 15 mg of the active ingredient each. Half tablet (7.5 mg) was given the animal the same way before.
After one year of experiment, due to constant contact with these animal, the aggressiveness due to the capture, hair clipping and ultrasound sessions lessen until the females became conditioned to freely get into the iron bar cage after being free from the net, and staying relatively calm during sessions. So the interval between two consecutive sessions were slowly reduced to 10 days.
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