Research Summary - 4
Evaluation of Local Anesthetic Strategies for Cautery Disbudding Pain in Goat Kids
| Date/Time: |
8/29/2026
15:15
|
| Author: |
Erica Schmidt |
| Clinic: |
University of Minnesota CVM |
| City, State, ZIP: |
St Paul, MN 55102 |
Erica Schmidt, BS
1
;
Alonso Guedes, DVM, MS, PhD, DACVAA
2
;
Beth Ventura, MS, PhD
3
;
Gerard Cramer, DVM, DVSc
1
;
Whitney Knauer, VMD, PhD
1
;
1Departments of Veterinary Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota
2Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, USA
3Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, USA
Introduction:
Disbudding is a common management practice and often performed without effective pain management on U.S. dairy goat farms, making this procedure an ongoing welfare concern. While a range of pain mitigation strategies have been investigated in goat kids, no standard protocol has been established. Longer-acting local anesthetics have shown promise in other species, supporting their potential use to improve pain mitigation in goat kids undergoing cautery disbudding. This study aims to evaluate the effects of buffered lidocaine (BL), bupivacaine (BUP), and bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension (BLIS) relative to a negative control (CON) on acute pain associated with cautery disbudding through physiologic and behavioral indicators.
Materials and methods:
This study will be performed on a commercial goat dairy in MN during the spring of 2026. Eighty doelings (n = 20/group) will be evaluated for health and randomly assigned into one of four treatment groups: BL (9:1 1% lidocaine to 8.4% sodium bicarbonate; 9 mg/mL), BUP (bupivacaine HCl 0.5%; 5mg/mL), BLIS (Nocita®; 13.3 mg/mL), or CON (no local anesthetic). For treated kids, anesthetic (2mL, 1mL/horn bud) will be administered over the cornual branches of the infratrochlear and lacrimal nerves. All kids will receive oral meloxicam (1mg/kg) at the time of enrollment. Kids will be restrained in a disbudding box, and cautery disbudding performed by applying the iron (Rhinehart X50, temperature recorded before each disbudding) in 3s applications for no more than 3 total applications (9s total). Injection and cautery disbudding will be performed by the same technician. Physiological measures will include body weight (kg; 0, 1, 7d), mechanical nociceptive threshold (MNT, kgf; baseline, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 24 h), and infrared thermography (IRT; baseline, 0.5, 4, 24 h). Baseline measures will be taken immediately prior to block application. During disbudding, struggle counts will be recorded live, and an audio recording will capture vocalizations. A pain-behavior ethogram will be used to describe post-operative behaviors recorded by continuous video in the home pens for 30 min after disbudding. Treatment effects on behavioral outcomes will be assessed using Poisson regression or other suitable models. Linear mixed-effects models will be employed to evaluate the time-dependent effects of treatment on MNT and IRT. Body weight data will be presented as average daily gain.
Results:
Enrollment and data analysis on study outcomes are ongoing. At the time of abstract submission, thirty-eight goat kids (7 ± 2 d old and 3.9 ± 0.8 kg) have been enrolled and randomly assigned to four treatment groups: BL (n = 9), BLIS (n = 10), BUP (n = 9), and CON (n = 10). The current distribution of breeds is Alpine (n = 20), Nubian (n = 1), Saanen (n = 4), and Toggenburg (n = 3). The iron temperature used was 474 ± 22℃.
Significance:
Enrollment is projected to conclude in May 2026, followed by subsequent data analysis. This research will provide veterinarians with evidence-based strategies on the efficacy and feasibility of using longer-acting local anesthetics during cautery disbudding in goat kids to inform future pain mitigation protocols.
