Assessment of the Duration of the Pain Response Associated with Lameness in Dairy Cows and the Influence of Treatment

Lameness causes significant acute and chronic pain and decreases the nociceptive threshold so that lame cows are more sensitive to pain from other sources. Previous research has suggested that the use of short courses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAID) can have a long term impact on the nociceptive threshold. This study was undertaken to assess whether such an effect could be identified under New Zealand conditions. Lame cows with claw horn disease were treated using corrective paring by a veterinarian, followed by random assignment to additional treatment with 2mg/kg tolfenamic acid (a long-acting NSAID). Assessments of locomotion score and mechanical nociceptive threshold (using a pneumatically actuated blunt pin) were made prior to treatment and three, eight, 28 and 100 days later.
Data were collected from 149 lame cows from nine dairy farms ...