The idea that dairy cattle housed in well-designed and comfortable environments produce more milk and have longer, healthier and more productive lives has been well supported by formal research studies as well as by the personal observations of experienced dairy personnel.

Known as cow comfort, this concept includes a wide range of issues and measures aimed at improving animal welfare and dairy businesses.

Environment
The primary focus of many comfort-enhancing efforts is improvements to the animals’ environment. Improving a cow’s environment is often the first step towards avoiding future problems that cause painful conditions. For example, decreasing the time cattle spend in a holding pen or using rubber mats to cushion pens or walkways may decrease the incidence of lameness. However, even the most comfortable environment will not directly provide relief for an animal or group of animals experiencing potentially painful conditions.

Pain management
Given that commonly encountered conditions have great economic impact for dairy farmers, it becomes apparent that what’s missing in discussions about cow comfort is pain management, which encompasses the interventions used to understand and ease pain, and alleviate its cause, if possible.

Drugs to alleviate pain
Pain management often includes the use of therapeutic agents specifically designed for that purpose. Anesthetic agents, such as lidocaine, are used to prevent the pain associated with surgical incisions for procedures such as correction of displaced abomasum, caesarean sections and umbilical hernia repair. They have long been a part of a standard of care veterinarians provide as routine pre-operative surgical preparation of the patient.

However, use of this or a similar agent for some other commonly performed procedures is not standard practice. A recent report which focused on lameness and animal welfare determined that although many veterinarians recognized their treatments for certain lameness-related conditions were painful, many did not administer analgesics to decrease the pain in the cattle undergoing treatment. This same article reported that following presentations and discussions on pain management, many veterinarians indicated they planned to increase their use of analgesics in their future pain management protocols.

Another example of pain management is the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin, for control of post-operative pain. Although there is documented evidence this practice should be a standard of care, it has not as yet been established. A growing body of research supports the administration of pain medication before a painful event, such as surgery, is encountered. Optimally, pain medication should be administered at least 30 minutes before an incision is made to decrease pain associated with surgical procedures.

Conclusion
Although the body of knowledge about pain management is much greater than presented here, the important message to dairy managers and veterinarians alike is to consider expanding your appreciation for cow comfort to include not only environmental comfort, but also protocols that can ease or possibly alleviate pain in hardworking dairy cattle. This approach will add slightly to the cost of overall treatment; however, it will be well worth it.  PD

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Large Animal Clinical Sciences
Michigan State University