Data from: Effects of disbudding on behavior and heart rate during jugular venipuncture in dairy calves

Disbudding is a common painful procedure that alters physiological and
behavioral responses in calves. Other routine management procedures are
commonly performed on calves while these disbudding wounds are healing,
such as vaccine injections, jugular venipuncture to check for passive
immunity, and ear tagging. While disbudding is known to cause long-lasting
pain, the effects of an additional invasive procedure on calf behavior and
heart rate when wounds are present is understudied. To evaluate the
effects of multiple, consecutive routine management procedures, we tested
whether calves were more reactive to handling and a jugular venipuncture
that occurred 3 d after caustic paste disbudding compared to those that
were not disbudded. We assigned 26 heifers to 2 treatments at 3 d of age:
sham handling (n = 13) or caustic-paste disbudding (n = 13). Three d after
paste was applied, heart rate and 3 behaviors (hindleg lifts, foreleg
lifts, struggling) were observed while the calves were restrained and a
jugular venipuncture was performed. Although there was no evidence of a
significant difference in average heart rate (mean ± SE: Paste = 142 ± 4;
Control = 148 ± 7 beats/min), foreleg lifts (mean ± SE: Paste = 3.3 ± 0.4;
Control = 2.9 ± 0.5 lifts/min), or struggling (mean ± SE: Paste = 0.03 ±
0.01; Control = 0.03 ± 0.01 proportion of handling time), disbudded calves
performed more hindleg lifts during the venipuncture than non-disbudded
calves (mean ± SE: Paste = 7.5 ± 1.1; Control = 4.1 ± 0.6 lifts/min).
However, foreleg lifts and struggling were likely hindered by the
restraint used. Similarly, heart rate may have reached a ceiling effect
associated with the stress of handling. The difference in hindleg lifts
provides preliminary evidence that disbudded calves are more responsive to
the combination of handling and jugular venipuncture 3 d later than
non-disbudded controls.