Administration of a NSAID (meloxicam) affects lying behaviour after caesarean section in beef cows

• The analgesic effect of meloxicam was investigated in beef cows undergoing caesarean section.
• Lying and standing behaviour was assessed with pedometers.
• Meloxicam-treated cows spent significantly more time lying after surgery.
• Increased lying following caesarean section may be an indicator of increased comfort.

Very little is known about the pain experienced by cattle following caesarean section and hence little consideration has been given to managing it. Thus the purpose of this study was to investigate activity-related behavioural changes in response to pain, by pre-emptively administering a long acting NSAID to beef cows undergoing caesarean section. One hundred and ten beef cows (55 primiparous, 55 multiparous) that underwent non-elective standardised caesarean section were recruited from eight French veterinary practices. Cows received pre-emptively either meloxicam (n = 63) or placebo (n = 47) according to a blind randomised schedule. Pedometers were attached to each cow's left hindleg and activity was monitored from 0 h (end of surgery) to 68 h post-partum. Time spent lying, number of steps and counts of lying bouts were calculated for the following periods: 0–8 h, 8–16 h, 16–24 h, 24–48 h and 48–68 h and analysed with a REML procedure.Cows receiving meloxicam spent significantly more time lying in the 0–8 h and 8–16 h periods following surgery than cows receiving placebo (+27.4 and +26.4 min, respectively; P < 0.05) and had more bouts of lying in the first 24 h (P < 0.05). No differences were seen in the number of steps taken (P > 0.05). These findings may be interpreted as suggesting that increased lying following caesarean section is an indicator of increased comfort; moreover, it may also suggest that improved welfare, for parturient cows, can be obtained with NSAID treatment.