Abstract
The physiological and behavioural responses were evaluated in goat kids that were disbudded either with or without local anaesthesia, in a study with 56 animals randomly allocated among five groups. The anaesthesia/disbudding group (AD, n = 12) was treated with 2 mL 2% lidocaine (L2%) around each horn bud, 20 min before disbudding by thermal cauterisation; kids in the anaesthesia group (A, n = 11) were treated as AD, without being disbudded; the saline/disbudding group (SD, n = 11) was treated with 2 mL saline and disbudded; the S group ( n = 11) experienced only simulated disbudding; and control/disbudding kids (CD, n = 11) were disbudded without any treatment. Cortisol concentrations, heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR) were determined from 20 min before to 4 h after disbudding. Struggles and vocalisations were also recorded during the procedure. Disbudding caused an acute and significant increase in cortisol concentrations and the values remained high for 2 h. Cortisol concentrations were higher in the disbudded groups ( P < 0.05), even when local anaesthesia was used. HR and RR were not affected by treatment ( P > 0.05). Frequency of struggles (10.5 ± 0.6, 10 ± 0.7, 12.8 ± 0.7 for AD, SD, and CD, respectively) and vocalisations (16.5 ± 1.2, 16.5 ± 1.3, and 19.3 ± 1.3 for AD, SD, and CD, respectively) were higher in disbudded kids than in the S group (5.6 ± 0.7 and 8.7 ± 1.3, for struggles and vocalisations respectively; P < 0.05). A greater percentage of kids showed high intensity behaviours in the disbudded groups (struggles: 83%, 72%, and 100% and vocalisations: 83%, 81%, and 100% for AD, SD, and CD, respectively) than in the S group (13% and 9%; P < 0.05). In conclusion, disbudding by thermal cauterisation induces an acute cortisol elevation and increases the expression of behaviours that indicate stress and pain. Infiltrating 2% lidocaine around each horn bud did not inhibit these responses.
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