Dairy cow lameness causes significant chronic pain and is a major welfare priority, with 2026 standards increasingly requiring routine pain relief as part of lameness treatment.
Lame cows experience chronic pain that affects virtually all aspects of their daily lives. Pain reduces time at the feed face, reduces lying time and causes social withdrawal. The welfare impact of untreated lameness is severe and prolonged. Despite this, routine use of NSAIDs for lame cows remains inconsistent. Economic pressures sometimes delay treatment, extending welfare suffering unnecessarily. Proactive lameness management with routine pain relief is both the welfare and economic optimum.