Pain medication may be accompanied by treatment with antibiotics, but sometimes this is unnecessary.
If your veterinarian prescribes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for pain, he or she may choose one based on label claim, experience in the field, price per treatment, duration of activity, ease of administration, advice of associates or slaughter withdrawal.
There are lots of things to consider, but hopefully, this article and discussion with your veterinarian will make the decision that much easier in the future when NSAIDs are considered.
Read Also
The glimmer of hope after a loss
The unexpected loss of a prized stallion and the loss of two relatives — one who lived a long life, and the other taken too soon — results in reflection by rancher Heather Eppich.
For years the clinic with which I was associated would give calves flunixine IV after hard calvings, thinking swelling and soreness on the legs and potentially ribs were greatly reduced, and I believe they were.
NSAIDs were given routinely to calves on IV fluids for scours. As long as they were rehydrated, it’s now proven that appetite is increased.
With calving season approaching, let’s talk about the cow. After calving there should be less obturator paralysis and quicker recovery from vaginal bruising and abrasions.
Appetite is not lost, so milk production is maintained. If one follows the beef code of practice, NSAIDs should be used at the time of delivery, when major surgical procedures such as C-sections occur. Actually, just at the beginning of surgery is the accepted practice.
I know from experience the recovery from C-sections is much more rapid and they don’t spend the first day moping around. I have used injectable products, oral meloxicam and now the Banamine TD, all with great success. The latter two have a greater ease of administration, which makes them both desirable around calving cows and necessary to have around.
You are very unlikely to see any trials on weight gains or the economics of painkillers. In the short term, the companies want to prove it takes a decent percentage of the pain away in different scenarios. The cattle will all do better initially as that makes common sense and health outcomes are likely improved long-term.
There usually will be compensatory gain once the animal recovers, so if we follow these cattle to slaughter there will be little difference. The issue is, all these painkillers have been proven to take various types of pain away and it simply is the right thing to do without hesitation in my opinion.
Ask your veterinarian, as all are prescription drugs. Humans can get most painkillers over the counter and perhaps painkillers will head that way in the future.
With calving, one needs to have your parameters based on a hard, medium or light pull. A light calving means being able to pull by hand with no other assistance. Medium or hard stages are when a calf puller is applied.
One also knows pulling with the cow’s contractions, going slow and methodical and applying lots of lubricant can avert a tough calving. Recognize the type of skill level you have and treat accordingly. Was there a tear created, did you pull too fast, was the calf slow to get breathing, did you hear any unusual pops or snaps indicating tension?
All these are clues the pull may have been too hard. From better milking to increasing appetite quicker, to mothering up and potentially being quicker to rebreed are all possibilities with which NSAIDs can help when given to cows after a moderate to hard pull.
A lot of producers now have painkillers prescribed for the season and have them close to the chute so they can easily be given.
The other bucket of pain we deal with is lameness in all areas of cattle production, but many cases are prevalent in the feedlot.
It is the second-most often treated clinical symptom at the feedlot, with the first being pneumonia. The newest NSAID on the market, Banamine TD (a transdermal pour-on), even has lameness caused by footrot on the label.
With the use of pressure-bearing plates, you can prove the product took a good percentage of the pain away as the lameness greatly subsides after treatment.
At the feedlot or in other areas of cattle production, it’s most important to get the lameness diagnosis correct.
This may involve lifting the foot and having a look. Most times antimicrobials can be avoided, but on almost all occasions NSAIDs will be used. Again, the beef code of practice and the public perception we have has justified what we do.
There may be times when a sprain or strain is left to convalesce on its own but that would be rare. The NSAIDs pretty much all have slaughter withdrawals, so that needs to be a consideration when used in heavy feedlot cattle.
Feedlot cattle sprains and strains, foot rot, interdigital dermatitis, sole ulcers or toe tip necrosis, arthritis, septic arthritis and broken legs are within the wide variety of types of lameness producers see.
Broken legs usually indicate emergency slaughter, yet all the rest may require NSAIDs. The footrot would require antimicrobials, yet many of the rest would not require systemic antimicrobials.
A large number of bigger feedlots still use a lot of dexamethasone because it is low withdrawal for slaughter, cheap, and potent as an anti-inflammatory, but no work has been done on the painkiller aspect.
There is also the question that steroids have an immunosuppressive effect, so in many ways, NSAIDs may be the safer proven alternative. There are additional uses for steroids at the feedlot, such as certain pneumonias aborting heifers, and today most veterinarians will have a solid opinion on which side they stand regarding steroidal usage in feedlots, especially regarding lameness.
Most of the NSAIDs last a couple of days, so only in advanced lameness cases would retreatment be considered.
Many other conditions in the feedlot may require NSAIDs as primary or ancillary treatment, depending on the feedlot veterinarian’s protocol. Buller cattle, calving difficulties, severe rectal prolapses, surgeries such as perineal urethrostomies, and exploratory surgery also would require NSAIDs on a case-by-case basis.
Common procedures such as dehorning and castrations have been talked about in other articles and there is no question cattle recover quicker and, I am sure, have fewer health outcomes with the use of NSAIDs. That goes for branding, too.
Any increase in weight gain will be negated as compensatory gain later in the feeding period, but pain control is simply the right thing to do when appropriate. Your veterinarian can help decide when it is necessary and what products to use when. They will, in some cases, help cut down the need for antimicrobials. NSAIDs are here to stay in cattle production and cattle are much better for it.
