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Foals Need Specific Pain Ethogram, Scientists Say Sponsored by:
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.