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At 7 days of age, 30 goat kids were randomly allocated to three groups: Sham (Sh) control, (i.e., simulating disbudding); Disbudding (Di), using thermal cauterization; Disbudding + Flunixin (DiFl), thermal cauterization + flunixin meglumine (2.2 mg/kg body weight). Each kid was video-recorded for 30 min before and after treatment to evaluate the frequency of head shaking, head scratching, body shaking, grooming, head rubbing, jumping, running, and bleating. Blood samples were taken 30 minutes after disbudding to evaluate serum cortisol concentrations and white blood cell count. Heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR) were measured using a stethoscope. Liveweight of goat kids was recorded at birth, the day before and 7 days after treatment, and at 25 days of age. The mean frequency of behaviors, such as head shaking (Sh: 3.42 ± 3.58; Di: 37.5 ± 47.8; DiFl: 4.02 ± 2.76) and head scratching (Sh: 2.2 ± 1.8; Di: 33.32 ± 31.2; DiFl: 4.42 ± 3.72) after treatment (corrected by pre-treatment values) were higher (p = 0.0001) in Di than in Sh and DiFl, and the frequency of jumping was higher (p = 0.022) for Di (3.74 ± 2.24) than that of DiFl (0.39 ± 0.92). The remaining behaviors did not show differences (p > 0.05). HR and RR were higher (HR: p < 0.0048; RR: p < 0.035) in group Di (HR: 156 ± 13.6; RR: 66 ± 14.8) than in Sh (HR: 138 ± 8.48; RR: 55.6 ± 5.4) and in DiFl (HR: 136 ± 6.38; RR: 52.8 ± 4.13). No differences were detected between liveweight, white blood cell count data (p > 0.05). Based on the results, it appears that flunixin meglumine reduced pain associated with disbudding and improves animal welfare.
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Martínez et al. (2022) studied this question.