Chronic pain in farm animals from conditions including lameness, mastitis, and post-surgical healing causes ongoing suffering that is frequently undertreated or unrecognised.
Chronic pain in livestock differs from acute pain in its persistence, its tendency to go unrecognised, and its cumulative welfare cost. A lame dairy cow that has been lame for weeks or months has experienced ongoing pain across that entire period, much of which may have gone untreated because the lameness was noticed without generating a pain management response. The welfare case for treating chronic pain is sometimes weaker in farming cultures because the animal continues to produce, move, and eat despite the pain, appearing functional. But appearing functional is not the same as experiencing adequate welfare; pain management that addresses ongoing suffering rather than merely acute events is the standard to aim for.