Episode 127 - The right pain relief

So Rory, we know that animals like our cows are prey animals.

They can be predated on.

And I know that in some cases, those animals really don't show their level of pain.

And we all know that, you know, we have humans that we all know that have quite what we think is quite a low tolerance to pain.

And you'll certainly know about it if they have an issue.

What's going on with our cows in that respect?

Yes, you're absolutely right.

Cows certainly aren't hypochondriacs, are they? And what you've touched on there around cattle being effectively prey animals, which is what they are, links into what we were discussing previously around how we understand pain in cattle.

And part of the reason, a part of the reason, not all the reason, but part of the reason we were not giving pain relief to cattle when they might have benefited or needed it was because they're prey animals and they hide that pain behavior.

Evolution wise, it's not in their interests to show that they're suffering pain.

So now, because of developments and research, we can see that when cattle are given these medicines, much like, as I mentioned, URI taking ibuprofen, they respond so conditions might get better quicker or production parameters go up eating time might increase for example and we can see those benefits and that's been really neat and it's only been in the last decade or so that we've seen some real leaps and bounds in that welfare space.

Have collars helped with that, like being able to see a bit more information about what animals are doing?

I think it's early to say, to be honest, but yes, we can definitely see that cattle are recover quicker when they're treated in the most appropriate manner and we know that cattle that are given corrective treatment for lameness and that includes the trial work was done with ketoprofen but that includes pain relief they're recovering quicker and return to normal walking an ambulation much quicker than cows that aren't offered pain relief or a shoe another example of pain relief that isn't a medicine isn't a drug those orthopedic shoes a variety of brands we've got here in New Zealand but if they're used alongside a drug a pain relieving drug we know we get a real big benefit in terms of how quickly that cow's walking normally again

So there are some other health issues that cows are faced with that these kinds of pain relief can be administered, these non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

products and um i think you listed out there are some there's one common one that most people without saying brand names common there is a few others too that work in that manner and some of those other diseases what are the other issues that that cows face that those help with

On your first point there, Anne, there are a number of drugs, medicines in that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs bracket.

The most popular one, like I mentioned, in New Zealand is ketoprofen because it's so practical and it's no milk withholding.

which is just super and makes it very economical as well.

There's others, meloxicam, lunixin and tofenamic acids are probably the big ones.

And they're all working that way where they inhibit that COX enzyme and prevent those pro-inflammatory molecules.

In answer to that second part of your question, what can we use these medicines for? The initial evidence is linked to performance parameters of these animals and also how well they recover from certain maladies.

So one, for example, would be mastitis.

That's a really common ailment for dairy cattle.

We know it to be painful.

And we've got some excellent treatments in antimicrobials to help manage the infection component.