Equine researchers are encouraging the creation of a pain ethogram just for foals. Drs. Johannes van Loon, Nicole Verhaar, Els van den Berg, Sarah Ross and Janny de Grauw have found that foals express pain differently than their adult counterparts. They feel creating a pain-related facial expression scale unique to foals will assist with their welfare. It's important for people caring for foals to recognize when they are experiencing problems, as well as to assist them in managing pain and determining when pain-relieving drugs are working.
To test their theory, the scientists took 60-second videos of 20 foals that were between one day and six months old that had had diagnosed painful conditions like colic, post-operative pain or an injury. They also took video before and after pain medications were administered.
They showed the videos to three observers who didn't know which foals were healthy and which were not, or if they had received pain medication. The observers, a senior anesthetist and two of his vet students, had undergone a two-day training to identify equine facial expressions and what they mean.
It was discovered that though foals and adult horses shared some of the pain-related expressions, like holding their ears back and tightening their eyelids, major differences were also observed.
Painful foals did not:
- Show the whites of their eyes when they are in acute pain, like adult horses do. This is most likely because foals show the whites of their eyes all the time as they look around.
- Exhibit a flehmen response when in acute pain—it's actually healthy foals that were more likely to curl their lip as they explore their environment.
- Grind their teeth, even when they have them.
However, foals in pain did smack their lips, which painful adult horses don't do, though it isn't understood why.
Each observer had similar findings when watching each video. This indicates that that with basic training, horse owners and caretakes can easily assess pain in foals in their care. The scientists suggest that more research is needed to confirm the pain-related behaviors of foals. The team hopes to develop ethograms specific to types of acute pain, like musculoskeletal or colic pain, as well as for chronic pan.
Read the study here.
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