Objective Assessment of Chronic Pain in Horses Using the Horse Chronic Pain Scale (HCPS): A Scale-Construction Study

Petzinger, E., Schweizerhof, M., & Schmied, W. (2021). Objective assessment of chronic pain in horses using the Horse Chronic Pain Scale (HCPS). Animals, 11(4), 1106. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11041106

The objective assessment of acute pain in horses can be performed by means of different types of pain scales. To date, no studies have been conducted to develop a structured pain measuring tool for the assessment of chronic pain in horses. In donkeys, a pain scale incorporating behavioural and facial expression-based parameters has been shown to be of added value in assessing chronic pain. In this study, we used the same concept to develop a pain scale (the Horse Chronic Pain Scale; HCPS) to measure chronic pain in horses, based on behavioural parameters and facial expressions. This pain scale was tested in 26 horses with different types of chronic pain (osteoarthritis, chronic laminitis, chronic back and neck problems, chronic dental disorders) and 27 healthy control animals. The authors found the HCPS to be a reproducible pain scale and useful to assess chronic pain in horses. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings in other horses and to validate its use in subsets of horses with specific chronic pain states.

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