Introduction

Addressing pain is a key expectation for animal welfare, and large animal practitioners have an important role in educating clients to recognize and respond to livestock pain. Pain is a subjective experience for humans and nonhuman animals; hence, we cannot truly know how it is felt by other individuals.

Veterinarians have important influence on the attitudes and behavior of livestock producers in regard to pain recognition and pain management. Dairy producers that involve veterinarians in their management decision for disbudding and dehorning protocols are more likely to provide analgesia,¹ and veterinar­ians that rate pain levels as high are more likely to provide analgesia.^2,3 However, there is little consensus among veterinary practitioners about appropriate pain management, with several surveys indicating that caesarian section and claw amputation are believed to be the most painful conditions in cattle, but opinions differ for severity of castration pain.^4,5 Female⁶ and younger^3-5 practitioners rate pain higher than their male and older colleagues. The decision to use analgesics for particular conditions appears to have a dichotomous distribution, with practitioners choosing to use analgesics for all cases or for none.^1,3