Developing a New Pain Assessment Tool

Despite the emergence of multiple pain scoring systems for horses, these systems have not been validated for a wide variety of clinical conditions, and they often rely on direct personal interaction with the horse. This human presence is believed to affect a horse’s display of discomfort. Researchers will use video analysis to examine horses with painful health conditions from a distance, specifically referencing a catalog of equine discomfort behaviors. The team will focus on horses with painful bone or joint injuries that receive epidural treatment to relieve their discomfort, studying behaviors and changes in heart rate before and after epidural pain treatment. The team hopes their findings will be used to improve pain assessment and improve patient care and well-being of affected horses.