Local anaesthetics are a class of drugs that can be used to entirely block pain signals during surgical procedures. Although this group of drugs is diverse, local anaesthetics produce predictable, reliable and temporary suppression of conduction through sensory nerves, motor nerves and autonomic nerves. Local anaesthetics can be used on their own in animals that can be safely and comfortably restrained, or they can be used in conjunction with sedation or general anaesthesia to contribute to preventive and multimodal analgesia. Lignocaine is the most widely used local anaesthetic drug and is registered for use in many production animal species in many countries. It has a fast onset of action of action (1–2 min) and a duration of action of 1–2 h. In some jurisdictions, it is the only analgesic drug registered for production animals.