Pain assessment in animals
Through the application, the user can learn, through demonstrative videos, which are the pain behaviors of each animal species, perform training to improve pain assessment and measure pain in their animal. In the latter case, the application automatically calculates the pain score of the evaluated animal and recommends or not treatment with analgesics.
The Vetpain application originated from the research project called "Pain and Quality of Life in Animals", developed at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics (FMVZ) of Unesp, Botucatu campus (SP), led by Professor Stelio Pacca Loureiro Luna , and its research group and collaborators, with support from several research bodies.
Our aim is to identify pain in animals using valid and reliable pain scales to inform the need for analgesic treatment and alleviate animal suffering.
All the studies presented here were approved by the Ethics Committees on the Use of Animals of the institutions where they were carried out and are in accordance with the laws and ethical principles of the use of animals in each country. The tutors authorized the use of their animals by means of a free and informed consent form and all animals were properly treated with analgesia.
Pain is an unpleasant sensory and/or emotional experience associated with physical and/or psychic damage. Pain has sensory, emotional and cognitive components (related to previous experiences) and is usually expressed by behavioral changes. Animals feel pain through the same mechanisms as humans, hence our moral and ethical obligation to alleviate pain.
To treat pain, you need to recognize it. Animals do not express themselves verbally like humans, so behavior is the main and easiest way to identify pain in animals. After recognition, pain should be quantified to determine the need and type of analgesic treatment.
The pain scales presented here have been validated exclusively for each species, based on behavior, and are the most suitable for assessing and quantifying pain in animals, as they guarantee greater accuracy of validity and reliability.
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