Lamb Marking Pain Relief Options

Despite the abundance of unhelpful information that is bandied about in relation to pain management at lamb marking, there are a number of practical options now available to farmers. Essentially, there are three commonly used options for pain relief at lamb marking, none of which require a veterinarian’s prescription.

In this blog we’ll discuss three different varieties of pain management options which we stock and recommend at FarmCo.

Butec®

Your first option is Butec®, which is a short-acting anti-inflammatory containing meloxicam. This is a pre-operative gel applied with a drench gun style applicator to the inside of the cheek of the lamb. It provides pain relief after 10 minutes and the relief lasts for six to nine hours.

A minimal 10-day export slaughter interval and meat withholding period applies to this product, and it can be used with all forms of castration, tailing, and mulesing, with a cost of approximately $0.41 per dose for lambs. Butec® can also be used for pain relief when dehorning and castrating calves.

Tri-Solfen®

Your second option is Tri-Solfen®, which is a short-acting local anaesthetic that uses a combination of four pain management ingredients. This viscous blue gel product is simply applied as a fan spray postoperatively to open wounds using an applicator.

Tri-Solfen® has the advantage of providing pain relief after just one minute, with the relief lasting for up to 24 hours. It can be used in association with mulesing, castration by knife and tail docking by knife or gas cutter. However, as it is only absorbed via exposed blood vessels, it does not provide pain relief for lambs castrated using rings.

A 90-day meat withholding period and export slaughter interval applies to Tri-Solfen® and it costs around $1.16 per dose for lambs. Tri-Solfen® can again be used for pain relief for calves in situations where blood vessels are exposed, such as disbudding or dehorning.

NumOcaine®

Your final option is NumOcaine®, which is used only on sheep in association with the NumNuts® ring applicator system. This option is useful for bare breech sheep breeds that don’t require mulesing. It involves the purchase of the innovative NumNuts® handheld device which allows farmers to both deliver a rubber ring and inject a local anaesthetic in the form of NumOcaine® for pain relief on the body side of the ring, using the same device.

NumOcaine® provides pain relief for up to four hours, and the product is often used where lambs are castrated with rings and tailed with rings. This option comes in at around $0.70 per dose, after the cost of the NumNuts® device, and there is currently no withholding period or export slaughter interval associated with this product.

Need Help or Advice?

For any other lamb marking questions, simply drop in to our FarmCo Moora store or give us a call on 1300 327 626.

Information taken from FarmCo’s Animal Health Info Pack, the NSW Government article Pain management recommended for husbandry procedures, and from the DPIRD WA article Best practice marking of lambs.