Disbudding pain: The benefits of disbudding goat kids with dexmedetomidine hydrochloride

Abstract This study compared the effectiveness of intramuscularly administered dexmedetomidine hydrochloride and other pharmacologic techniques used in reducing disbudding pain in goat kids. A total of 30 kids aged 4–9 days old were randomly assigned to 5 treatment groups; Sham disbudded (SD, n = 6); hot-iron disbudded (295–326 °C, 4–7 s/horn bud; D, n = 6); hot-iron disbudded after a ring block with lidocaine hydrochloride and IM administration of meloxicam (LMD, n = 6); hot-iron disbudded under dexmedetomidine hydrochloride, lidocaine hydrochloride and meloxicam (DeLMD, n = 6); hot-iron disbudded under dexmedetomidine hydrochloride and saline (DeSSD, n = 6). Results indicated that there were significant increases in plasma cortisol of the D (pre-disbudding, 16.97 ± 3.3 vs. after disbudding, 58.1 ± 12.8, mean ± SE) and LMD (15.2 ± 3.0 vs. 43.9 ± 8.6: P