Comparison of two topical treatments on wound healing 7 days after disbudding of calves using thermocautery

ABSTRACT

Aims To compare wound healing 7 days after cautery disbudding of dairy calves treated immediately after disbudding with a traditional antimicrobial spray (OXY) or with a topical anaesthetic gel containing cetrimide, adrenaline and two local anaesthetics, lignocaine and bupivacaine (TA).

Method Eighty-one female dairy calves between 6–8 weeks of age were disbudded using a standard cautery disbudding protocol (sedation, cornual block, and analgesia), with complete removal of the horn bud. After disbudding, the wound on the right and left horn buds within each animal were randomly allocated to receive either OXY or TA. One week after disbudding, wounds were visually assessed for the presence of exudate, necrotic tissue, crust, or granulation tissue which were each assigned a grade from 1–3, where 1 = no evidence, 2 = moderate presence; and 3 = marked presence.

Results At 7 days after disbudding, the prevalence of wounds with exudate or necrotic tissue was very low, and independent of treatment. The odds of a disbudding wound treated with TA being scored as having granulation tissue and was 5.2 (95% CI = 1.72–15.7) times that of a wound treated with OXY. Conversely, the odds of wounds treated with TA being scored as having crusts was 0.18 (95% CI = 0.06–0.57) that of a wound treated with OXY. No sign of infection was seen in any calves.

Conclusion and clinical relevance The greater prevalence of granulation tissue and reduction in crusting in disbudding wounds treated with topical anaesthetic gel compared to those treated with the antimicrobial spray suggests that use of the topical anaesthetic gel may speed wound healing compared to using antimicrobial spray. This should be further tested in a larger study undertaken over a longer period.

KEYWORDS:

• Calf
• disbudding
• wound
• healing
• pain

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the farms for providing the animals and large animal veterinary technicians Jess Leong Son and Emma Redward (Massey University).

Declaration of interest

G Stilwell and R Laven have performed other pain management studies with Tri-Solfen in ruminants. The authors would also like to thank Bayer NZ Ltd for providing Tri-Solfen for the trial.