Behavioural response of dairy goat kids to cautery disbudding

Behaviours indicative of pain associated with cautery disbudding were assessed in 10 female Saanen goat kids. At 4 ± 2 days of age, kids were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: (1) disbudded with a cautery iron (CAUT, n = 5) and (2) sham handled (SHAM, n = 5). Animals were video recorded 12 h pre- and post-treatment in the home pen and one trained observer recorded the frequency of 11 behaviours: allogrooming, body shaking, ear biting, feeding, head butting, head rubbing, head scratching, head shaking, jumping, running and self-grooming. The change in frequency (post- minus pre-treatment) was compared between treatment groups. CAUT and SHAM kids performed the same behaviours before and after treatment, however the frequency of certain behaviours changed in response to disbudding. Behaviours (mean ± SE) that displayed the greatest difference (CAUT and SHAM respectively) were: head shaking (31.2 ± 3.11 vs. 17.5 ± 1.79; P = 0.027), head scratching (15.8 ± 5.90 vs. 2.2 ± 1.11; P = 0.044), head rubbing (4.2 ± 0.77 vs. 0.8 ± 0.27; P = 0.015) and body shaking (6.1 ± 0.36 vs. 8.8 ± 0.49; P = 0.022). Allogrooming, ear biting, feeding, head butting, jumping, running, and self-grooming did not vary significantly across treatments. These results show that changes in the frequency of certain behaviours may reflect pain associated with cautery disbudding in goat kids and could be used to assess pain mitigation strategies.