Analgesia is important in animal welfare, but available drugs are not approved in all species. Meloxicam is a steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) not registered for use in goats. We investigated if meloxicam diminished pain in kids after dehorning during full anaesthesia and analgesia. The study design was placebo- controlled, randomized and blinded. Six 2–3,5 weeks old kids (bwt 5.4 ± 1.0 kg) were given meloxicam (0.5 mg/kg) intramuscularly (IM) and their five siblings (bwt 5.8 ± 0.8 kg) were given isotonic NaCl IM directly after dehorning. The injections were repeated daily for three days. Blood samples were taken before the injection (i.e. 24 h after previous injection) and analyzed for meloxicam and cortisol concentrations. The behavior of the kids was studied in 2 h-sessions daily. Plasma meloxicam concentrations were 803±147 ng/ml, 1133±249 ng/ml, and 1343±291 ng/ml on day 1, 2, and 3 (means ± SD), respectively, after dehorning. The mean plasma cortisol concentrations were between 20 to 28 nmol/L in both groups (NS). Signs of pain was evaluated on a visual analogue scale (1= no pain signs; 10=severe pain) and was a summary of nine behaviors (grinding teeth, vocalization, avoiding butting, shaking head, moving head from side to side, half-closed eyes, getting up and down, isolation, stiff movements). The meloxicam kids showed a lower score than NaCl kids during the two observation sessions (P = 0.002 and P = 0.007) after drug injection on the day after dehorning, but there was no difference on following days. It is concluded that meloxicam stays for a long time in blood plasma of kids. Dehorning gives modest signs of pain, which could explain the lack of effect on cortisol concentration and the small difference in pain scores between the groups.