Vetpain (MOD)

Through the application, the user can find out, through demonstrative videos, which are the pain behaviors of each animal species, perform training to improve in pain assessment and measure pain in their animal. In the latter case, the application automatically calculates the evaluated animal's pain score and recommends or not treatment with analgesics.
The Vetpain application originated from the research project called “Pain and Quality of Life in Animals”, developed at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics (FMVZ) of Unesp, campus of Botucatu (SP), led by Professor Stelio Pacca Loureiro Luna , and its research group and collaborators, with support from various research bodies.
Our aim is to identify pain in animals through valid and reliable pain scales, to inform about the need for analgesic treatment and alleviate animal suffering.
All studies presented here were approved by the Ethics Committees on the Use of Animals of the institutions where they were carried out and are in accordance with the laws and ethical principles of the use of animals in each country. The tutors authorized the use of their animals by means of a free and informed consent form and all animals were properly treated with analgesia.
Pain is an unpleasant sensory and/or emotional experience associated with physical and/or psychic damage. Pain has sensory, emotional and cognitive components (related to previous experiences) and is usually expressed by changes in behavior. Animals feel pain through the same mechanisms as humans, hence our moral and ethical obligation to alleviate pain.
To treat pain, it is necessary to recognize it. Animals do not express themselves verbally like humans, so behavior is the main and easiest way to identify pain in animals. After recognition, pain should be quantified to determine the need and type of analgesic treatment.
The pain scales presented here were validated exclusively for each species, based on behavior, and are the most appropriate to assess and quantify pain in animals, as they ensure greater accuracy of validity and reliability.