My interest in pain in animals led to my PhD, "Advances in the objective evaluation of pain and analgesic efficacy in horses", which I completed in 2009. This involved the refinement of methods of nociceptive threshold testing originally developed by the anaesthesia / analgesia research team (led by Prof Waterman-Pearson) for use in horses and the investigation of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of buprenorphine in this species. I also developed ethograms to try to determine behaviours potentially associated with pain following castration and this behaviour based work led to post-PhD work on the facial expression of pain in horses funded by the BVA, Animal Welfare Foundation, Norman Hayward Fund.

Impact

I provide lectures and practical sessions for vets and nurses undertaking continuing professional development. Subjects include pain in all domestic species and clinical anaesthesia.

University Open Days

Further information about Dr Emma Love can be found here.