11 Jul 2024
Key message of a cattle vet conference hosted by Ceva Animal Health was importance of them extolling virtues of pain relief to their farming clients.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
Vets have been urged to go back to basics in their conversations with farmers about NSAID use in dairy cows.
The message was one of the strong take-homes from a one-day cattle vet conference and round table event hosted by Ceva Animal Health.
Discussions during the Break the Pain Conference and Round Table in Wolverhampton showed many vets assumed farmers knew about the benefits of NSAIDs or concerns about medicine costs prevented them discussing them with their clients.
Presentations during the day covered use of NSAIDs in pain relief at calving, during treatment of digital dermatitis and for pain associated with lameness.
A consensus to come out of the day was that vets, mobility scorers and foot trimmers all needed to use more positive language on farm, and take time to explain the benefits.
Katherine Timms – ruminant veterinary advisor at Ceva Animal Health, which manufactures the NSAID Ketofen – spoke at the conference. She said: “Farmers want an easy and cost-effective solution when it comes to offering pain relief to their herds due to other priorities on farm, and using NSAIDs strategically has shown a substantial return on investment of £1.66 for every £1 invested.
“Vets should be leading discussions on pain relief to change their clients’ mindset with the goal of providing gold standard care for the long-term health and welfare of the nation’s herd.”
Speakers at the conference included Nicola Gladden of the University of Nottingham, University of Liverpool cattle health specialist Georgios Oikonomou and foot health consultant James Wilson.
Attendee Sam Bowker, vet surgeon at Blackdown Farm Vets in Devon, said: “It was a good challenge to us as vets to lead on the use of NSAIDs and pain relief on farm.
“We had a good discussion about protocols we have in the practice – particularly around the use of pain relief when called to assisted calvings and all agreed to use them ongoing.
“The other good reminder was not to assume that farmers won’t want to give pain relief because of cost, and to consider both the welfare and production benefits of their use.”
