New research - horses feel MORE pain than humans

Beausmate said:
Something doesn't have to hurt more to feel worse. I know people who can't bear to have their feet touched, not because it hurts in any way, but because they find the sensation unpleasant.

I wonder what is going in in the brain - would it be pain or something else?
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Not pain, no. I have a foot phobia and become extremely anxious if someone puts their foot near me (with or without shoes and socks). I also don't like people touching my feet (although I do my own pedicures). I don't mind babies' feet or those of children younger than say 2 either.
 
fburton said:
Substitute "thrashed" for a less emotive term, and isn't this rather like the end of a race when horses are being "urged" with a series of whip strikes? Eventually the whipping stops, but that would be the case in the thrashing scenario too. The horse would have to have learned through experience that running harder will make it stop (eventually).
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Sorry, when wagtail said the word 'thrashed' I was thinking human holding a horse still (or cornering it) and hitting it repeatedly purely out of anger.

An ex racer that has probably been chased on with a whip fairly regularly is not often frightened of the whip. They will run forwards in response to being shown it, but not whites of the eyes panick that a horse that's been restrained and hit repeatedly has. In the moment of being hit the pain to each was probably very similar, so I'm not of the opinion that it is the amplitude of the pain itself that causes the remembered pain reaction that wagtail was describing.
 
I do think there is a psychological element with human that there may not be with animals.

It seems possible to hypnotize humans so they feel less pain or less fear, whereas with animals the pain i imagine can be frightening for them as they don't understand what is going on or it makes them feel vulnerable.

Also with humans there are varying responses to pain, so I wonder if this is totally psychological or if there is a genetic element too. There are even people who enjoy pain.

I do certainly agree that animals feel pain but maybe in a different way to we do, they bodies are designed differently so they may be more sensitive in different areas to us. I wonder if they get migraine and headache in the same way we do. I hope not as it would be very difficult for them to let us know if they had a headache.
 
DabDab said:
Really, that's interesting - how did you find out?
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It was a dog. He started just randomly crying. He'd had a bad shoulder so we wasted loads of time with the vets (months actually, going sown that route). Then he started to drop weight and he would lie crying for hours. The vets were stumped so he was referred to a veterinary hospital where he was scanned and biopsies showed cancer. They said lymphoma. They persuaded us to try chemotherapy. He was a large dog and only 3 years old. We spent £8k but he got worse and worse until he couldn't lie down or lower his head to eat or drink. We kept telling them his head hurt him and he was howling. They eventually found a brain tumour and we now know he was suffering excruciating headaches for over 6 months. The last 3 days of his life were spent on his feet with his head elevated. We had to beg them to put him to sleep. They wanted to try more treatment. It is one of the biggest regrets of my life that I didn't realise sooner what he was going through and put him out of his misery.
 
DabDab...my equine communicator told me that Trev had been getting headaches. I really didn't know what to do with that info, so parked it... Not long afterwards he had his MOT & teeth check from the vet, and it turned out that he had big hooks at the back. I was horrified as I'd been using a fully qualified & respected EDT for years. Anyway, it was sorted out under sedation. I was having a google later, & discovered that if a horse has hooks, its jaw can't align properly, which causes headaches. Co-incidence or something else? Who knows!

T x
 
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