Lessons Learned from Pain Management Research in Dairy Cattle

One area of increasing focus of health management research has been pain management in food animals. My position at the Ontario Veterinary College allows me to teach undergraduate DVM students in all years of the program, interact with producers on farm, and conduct research both at our dairy research facility and on commercial dairy farms. Through these interactions and research experience I have learned many lessons over the twelve years that I have been involved in this area of research. These lessons are: 1. I teach students but students teach me. 2. Producers care about their animals and will do the right thing. 3. Not all treatments are good. 4. Dystocia hurts both the calf and the cow. 5. Sickness behavior is a key concept – particularly for producers and veterinarians. 6. Change is difficult. Through work our research group has conducted in pain management of disbudding, mastitis, diarrhea, calving, and surgery; and surveys of changes in Ontario of both producer and veterinary approaches to disbudding in the past 10 years, these lessons will be illustrated and explored.