Do we need to use pain control when castrating young calves?

Branding Season is now in full swing. With everything else on your mind, have you ever considered using some type of pain reliever for castration?

The “Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle” recommends castrating calves as young as possible and using pain control when castrating bulls older than nine months. Are there benefits to using it when castrating young calves, though? Medication can decrease pain and stress, but is it practical? Does it pay off ? A survey of Canadian producers in 2007 reported than less than seven per cent of beef calves less than six months of age at the time of castration receive pain relief treatments.

Dr. Rodney Walliser with the Horseshoe Veterinary Clinic in Swift Current explained that cattle tolerate pain better than other animals.

“That doesn’t mean that we don’t need to use painkillers, but something like a twisted gut, that will drop a horse to the ground, will hardly seem to impact a cow for days.”

Because it is not a widely used practice, research on pain relief for castrating beef calves is limited. Studies that have evaluated the effect of local anesthetic for castration on feed intake and average daily gain (ADG) generally have not shown a significant difference between “treated” and “control” calves. There seems to be a benefit to providing pain control when castrating and dehorning at the same time. Kansas State University investigated the benefits of providing a non steroid antiinflammatory drug (NSAID), similar to Aspirin, in drinking water for several days prior to and following dehorning and castrating. They concluded that it minimized any weight loss following and improved ADG over the first 13 days. The more stress your calves are under the greater the impact of providing pain relief. What is holding producers back from adopting pain control protocols when castrating young calves?

1. No drugs registered in Canada specifically for pain control for castration, and no long-acting painkillers available on the market.

2. The practicality of using these medications in the field. “Anafen” (Ketoprofen) is labeled for relief of fever, pain, and inflammation, but requires a daily injection for three days. “Banamine” (Flunixin) requires intravenous (IV) injection. Using a NSAID in drinking water requires that the calf be drinking water rather than milk and some way of supplying it to the calves but not their mothers.

3. Some discomfort following castration helps to reduce movement, and encourage the calf to rest and heal.

The simplest way to decrease the trauma of castrating calves is to do them in the spring, as young as possible. Young calves recover quicker and have fewer complications than older calves. The University of Saskatchewan has looked at the impacts of surgical castration on calves. In 2009 they did a study on three month old Angus or Herford cross bull calves. For every day that it was older, a calf was three times as likely to be classified as “in-pain” following the procedure.