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PROVIDING PAIN RELIEF
Calweton Vet Group’s Stuart Gough explains:
‘Twenty years ago, NSAIDs were quite
expensive. They were administered on-farm
by vets, and we would be quite choosy in
their use. For example only in life-saving
situations, like toxic E.coli mastitis.
‘However, as more NSAIDs have come onto
the market, prices have fallen and we now
recommend our faming clients to administer
NSAIDs to give immediate pain relief to animals
in need. Any animal that has had a potentially
uncomfortable or painful experience will benefit.
So this now includes routine use in mastitis
control, difficult calvings, and lameness cases.
‘I firmly believe that this increased use of
NSAIDs is one of the greatest welfare steps
forward – providing low cost effective pain
relief that has performance benefits which
more than cover the cost of the drug.
‘After all, an animal that is in some degree of
pain, is not going to be focused on eating. So
in dairy herds where maintaining feed intakes
is so essential for healthy rumen function to
support milk production, then providing pain
relief can have significant economic, as well
as welfare, benefits.’
Providing pain relief
- a big plus for animal welfare
with financial benefits too
T
he use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs, or
colloquially, ‘en-sades’) in livestock production has changed
significantly over the past two decades.
CALWETON
VETERINARY GROUP
Veterinary Surgeon
Stuart Gough
XLVets Practice
Calweton Veterinary
Group, Callington
STUART GOUGH,
CALWETON VETERINARY GROUP
SUMMER 2013 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
8