Routine veterinary procedures on farm animals including pregnancy diagnosis, vaccination, and wound treatment create significant welfare challenges from handling stress, pain, and inadequate sedation or analgesia.
Veterinary procedures on farm animals create welfare costs that can be substantially reduced through appropriate handling, analgesia, and sedation. Animals that struggle violently during restraint experience extreme stress and are at risk of physical injury to both themselves and handlers. Low-stress handling techniques using behavioral principles reduce the fight response and make procedures safer and less aversive. Pain management for procedures including wound treatment and minor surgery is often inadequate in farm contexts, representing a significant avoidable welfare cost that appropriate analgesic use could address.