The use of epidurals in cattle

In practice, anaesthesia of cattle under field conditions involves the application of local anaesthetic techniques such as flank anaesthesia, regional limb perfusion and caudal epidural anaesthesia in order to obtain suitable operating conditions without having to perform general anaesthesia. Caudal epidural anaesthesia can be divided into 2 different categories: High dose and low dose. High epidural anaesthesia involves administration of a relatively large volume of local anaesthetic to provide analgesia to more cranial body regions and is therefore used for surgeries on the hind limb and flank. The more common method is low epidural analgesia which differs only in the volume of the local anaesthetic injected. This technique is inexpensive, effective and practical and requires no sophisticated equipment. It is therefore relatively easy to perform under field conditions.