Table 1.

Scoring for examination of the animal and its cage

	Score 0	Score 1
Observation of the animal
Spontaneous behavior	Sleeping, resting, digging, running, walking, rearing, climbing, eating, drinking, grooming, sniffing	Sudden movements, backwards movements, transient involuntary muscular contraction of any body part, kicking with hind paws, licking/biting the wound
Posture	Lying, sitting, moving,	Hunched, arched back, crouched
Breathing	Undisturbed, regular	Exerted, irregular
Coat condition	Clean, smooth, well-groomed	Ruffled, dirty, unkempt, piloerection, hair loss (alopecia)
Eyes	Clear, bright	Discharge
Body condition	Good, unchanged as judged from external appearance	Sunken flanks, swollen areas, ascites
Wound	Clean, dry, smooth	Dirty, bloody, uncleaned, signs of self-injury, signs of inflammation or necrosis, i.e., unusual color (e.g., red, pale) or swollen
Behavior after provocation/weighing	Alert, ready to take flight	Apathetic, sedated, highly aggressive, increased vocalization
Movement after provocation/weighing	No aberration in moving pattern	Decelerated/slowed, crawling, immobile, lameness, tiptoe gait
Appearance of cage
Condition of nest	A nest clearly identifiable	Either no nest identifiable or multiple fragmentary nest-like resting places at different locations
Condition of territory	Cage area clearly structured, i.e., obvious areas for defecation and sleeping	Areas of defecation and sleeping indistinguishable, feces either adhering to nesting materials or not visible