Pain management in cattle

Pain management is an increasing concern to veterinarians, owners, and the public. Many therapeutic modalities for management of pain are currently available for use. Selection of analgesic drugs in emergency and critical care patients must be done cautiously to limit unwanted side effects of the medication. In this context, pain therapy should be directed at the multiple mechanisms (multimodal therapy) responsible for pain, and analgesic therapies should be instituted before (preemptive therapy) pain is initiated (eg, surgery) whenever possible. In the presence of severe distress, analgesic therapy should be selected after consideration of the patients' cardiorespiratory status and the disease process.