Our industry continues to study the impact and dynamics of pain in all species. This article introduces a new equine pain scale and its implementation in a hospital setting. Equine veterinary teams and representatives that service them will benefit from reading and discussing the information presented.
Source: Equine Veterinary Education, January 2016.
Pain management is dependent on the quality of the pain evaluation. Ideally, pain evaluation is objective, pain-specific and easily incorporated into a busy equine clinic. This paper reviews the existing knowledge base regarding the identification and quantification of pain in horses. Behavioral indicators of pain in horses in the context of normal equine behavior, as well as various physiological parameters potentially useful for pain evaluation, are discussed. Areas where knowledge is sparse are identified and a new equine pain scale based on results from all reviewed papers is proposed. Finally, the most important considerations in relation to the implementation of a pain scale in a hospital setting are discussed.
INSIGHTS – Representatives will want to read this and then discuss actions with technical service DVMs. Manufacturers can effectively use this study with their teams and distributors to reinforce their products and pain management strategies.