Effective pain management in veterinary medicine has advanced dramatically, but significant gaps remain in recognition and treatment, particularly for livestock and exotic species.
Pain is the most commonly experienced welfare insult across all farmed, companion, and wild animal species. Yet recognition and treatment of animal pain remain inconsistent. Part of the problem is species-specific pain expression — animals that evolved to hide weakness have subtler pain indicators that require training to recognise. Part is economic: pain relief in livestock adds cost that competitive market pressures discourage. The solutions are straightforward: better veterinary education in pain recognition and multimodal analgesia, mandatory pain relief for invasive farming procedures, and consumer support for higher welfare products that fund the cost of better pain management.