Dr. Kristabel Lewis, BSc BVMS(Hons), technical services veterinarian, Troy Animal Healthcare asks have you discussed pain management plans for marking this year with your clients?

Why is pain relief essential?

Animals that are healthier and experience less pain tend to grow faster and more efficiently.

Australian consumers now expect animal welfare to be a priority, and as Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) states, ‘providing pain relief during routine husbandry is now an expectation’.

Using pain relief or preventative treatments during procedures such as castration or tail docking allows animals to resume normal behaviours—like grazing and bonding with offspring—sooner than untreated animals.² Unmanaged pain can lead to stress, suppress the immune system, and, in severe cases, result in death.

Research conducted by CSIRO on Butec demonstrated a sevenfold reduction in pain-related behaviours in Merino lambs within the first 8 hours after marking procedures.²

Butec offers systemic, long-lasting relief from pain and inflammation across multiple procedures—with a single, needle-free dose.

What are the current trends for pain management in Australia?

The Sheep Sustainability Framework 2024 National Producer Survey shows the number of sheep producers using appropriate pain management is increasing.

While uptake of pain management options is improving, it is provided in only 20 per cent of sheep that are castrated. There is still a lot of potential for improving the welfare of many lambs at marking, particularly for producers using rings.

The guidelines for appropriate pain management are:

There are a few options available OTC now, which one should I recommend?

Broadly, there are now two groups of products available over the counter in Australia: systemically acting products containing meloxicam such as Butec, and locally acting products such as NumOcaine and Tri-Solfen.

The locally acting products work rapidly at the site of the procedure, for a short period of time, to minimise pain as the knife or ring is applied.

Systemically acting products work by entering the bloodstream and impact the pain and inflammatory pathways in the body.

This means with one dose you can be treating pain at multiple sites, such as castration and tail docking wounds. They take a little longer to begin working, but will remain effective for a sustained period of time.

Ideally, using multimodal pain management, a combination of local and systemic products, will provide maximal pain relief. However, if you only sell one product, make it Butec, because:

What are you doing to spread the word?

At Troy Animal Healthcare, we love to see rural stores working creatively to make sure producers know what is available to them.

Some things we have seen that work well are:

Our Key Account Managers are passionate about improving welfare outcomes for animals and would be very happy to work with you.

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Thursday, 13th August 2026

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