Comparison of firocoxib and meloxicam for pain mitigation in goats undergoing surgical castration

Abstract

Castration is a common husbandry practice in food animal management. Castration reduces aggression, prevents indis­criminate breeding, and improves carcass quality. For male goats intended to be kept as pets, castration is recommended close to sexual maturity (6-8 m) to allow for increased urethral diameter. A larger urethral diameter lowers the chances of ure­teral obstruction occurring. There are currently no approved analgesic drugs for surgical castration in goats. Veterinarians must extrapolate analgesic data from other livestock species to try to mitigate pain in goats. Sheep and cattle are commonly used, but there is little research supporting best practices of pain mitigation in goats. This study sought to examine the ef­fects of firocoxib and meloxicam after surgical castration in crossbred goats.