Current attitudes about animal welfare have increased the importance of pain management in livestock. Even minor surgical procedures in livestock are now performed using a combination of regional, local, or general anesthesia combined with uninterrupted post-surgical analgesia. Attitudinal changes toward animal suffering have necessitated an understanding of pain modulation by large animal... + Leer más
Current attitudes about animal welfare have increased the importance of pain management in livestock. Even minor surgical procedures in livestock are now performed using a combination of regional, local, or general anesthesia combined with uninterrupted post-surgical analgesia. Attitudinal changes toward animal suffering have necessitated an understanding of pain modulation by large animal veterinarians, and a willingness of the owners to incur extra cost in order to comfort animals. Pain is a percept consisting of initial nociception followed by a slower but integrated emotional phase. Nociception is the neural recognition of a potentially injurious physical or chemical stimulus. Pain responses occur only after centralized processing, and elicitation of an emotional output to the nociceptive input. The cerebral cortex, thalamus, and the limbic system are involved in pain processing, so specific behaviors to painful stimuli depend upon species, breed, temperament, and rearing. Long-term painful stimuli may enhance sensitivity in some animals, and habituate others. Acute centrally processed pain can be recognized in animals by behavioral changes that include, vacant stare, loss of mobility, guarding or splinting of an affected limb, altered avoidance patterns, vocalization, tachypnea, repetitive motor activities, loss of socialization, repeated attempts at lateral recumbency, inappetance and reduced grooming behavior. The relative importance of these signs in reflecting the degree of pain that is being experienced by an animal is unknown.
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