Sheep are stoic prey animals that mask signs of pain, making accurate assessment crucial for welfare and veterinary care.
Sheep welfare has historically been underserved by pain management due to their stoic nature making suffering less visible, the large flock sizes making individual examination rare, and economic pressures in an often low-margin industry. The development of sheep facial grimace scales has been transformative in providing objective pain assessment tools that farmers and veterinarians can use without requiring behavioral expertise. Routine painful procedures including castration and tail docking are performed on millions of lambs annually, often without analgesic or anesthetic, despite evidence that these procedures cause significant pain both acutely and post-procedurally. Lameness is frequently undertreated because affected sheep continue eating and moving, obscuring the severity of their discomfort. Flock health monitoring systems using automated gait analysis show promise for detecting lame individuals in large flocks before pain becomes severe.