Lamb Marking Pain Relief Options
It’s that time of year again - this seasons lambs are starting to hit the ground!
While the season is only just beginning, now is the time to start organising your pain relief for marking. Pain relief at marking is welfare friendly and helps meet consumer demand. Pain relief has been shown to have significant benefits to mothering up post-marking (resulting in fewer losses), and some benefits to weight gain.
We have multiple products available for these procedures.
Buccalgesic - Buccalgesic is an oral product that contains Meloxicam, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). It is administered inside the cheek and absorbed via the mucous membranes. It works within 15 minutes, and lasts up for to 48 hours. It has a 10 day meat withhold period.
There are some tips and tricks to improve ease of use of Buccalgesic. Keeping a bottle warm will help reduce the viscosity of the liquid, and ensure ease of administration. Bottles can be kept at body warmth by placing bottles under clothing, or using artificial warming methods. The applicator gun should be kept hanging down
Additionally, the 250ml bottle of Buccalgesic has been discontinued, now coming only in 400ml bottles.
Injectable meloxicam - this form of meloxicam is injected under the skin. As with Buccalgesic, it starts working in 15 minutes and lasts for up to 48 hours. It has a 11 day meat withhold period.
“Numnuts” - using a drug called Numocaine, this is a form of local anaesthetic that is injected at the site of castration/tail docking via a sealed system using a Numocaine applicator. It provides superior pain relief in the first hour post marking, while NSAIDs provide pain relief for longer. It has a 0 day meat withhold period.
It is safe to give both Numnuts and an NSAID in conjunction with each other, and is seen as current best practice for reducing pain relief.
For a comprehensive flock health program, we also recommend performing a faecal egg count on your ewes 7-10 days prior to lamb marking, to help assess whether drenching of the flocks is necessary while the ewes are in the yards.