Estudantes de medicina veterinária sabem avaliar e tratar a dor dos animais?

Pain can cause harm to the animal when not identified and treated appropriately. Teaching knowledge regarding the pathophysiology of pain, its forms of presentation in each species and drugs used for control, during graduation, are essential for the training of professionals capable of implementing assertive therapy and reducing harm to animals. Therefore, the objective was to identify the knowledge of Veterinary Medicine students, from the seventh period onwards, about the recognition and treatment of pain, through the application of electronic forms. The data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis with frequency analysis and comparisons carried out using Fischer's exact test and chi-square test. Forty-one responses were obtained, mostly composed of female students (90.2%) from four regions of Brazil, predominantly in the Southeast (68.3%). Regarding pain, the majority (97.6%) of students agree that recognizing it is important for instituting adequate therapy, however, 36.9% of students agree that recognizing pain is difficult to achieve. in animals. Regarding teaching in institutions, only 4.9% agree that the approach is done sufficiently and 23.7% of those believe they did not receive adequate training to treat pain. When self-assessing their skills, 26.8% of those said they did not have adequate knowledge. Therefore, the relevance of studying the topic is highlighted, aiming to improve teaching, with the training of aware and qualified professionals