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Pet Pain Management
Pain management is a priority for our staff. As advocates for our patients, our veterinary team has the responsibility to recognize, assess, prevent, and treat pain. The research of the last decade has brought much new information about the effects of pain, pain assessment and it’s control. We have many more options for controlling pain from surgery, injury or disease than we had in the past ranging from new drugs to herbal therapy to acupuncture and massage.
It is now considered irresponsible to have our pets have to endure needless pain. A partnership between you and our veterinarians and staff is crucial to developing pain management strategies for all of our patients. You see your pet all the time and usually know when something is not right.
It is important for you to learn to recognize the cues indicating pain or discomfort in your pet so together we can do something about it. Once we determine that an animal would benefit from pain management, we need to provide safe and effective therapy to assist our good friends.
Pain is very subjective and difficult to measure and it’s even harder to assess in cats than dogs. Most animals that are experiencing pain will change their behavior patterns. We will see them being reluctant to jump or climb stairs, observe them becoming more withdrawn and inactive, or notice them reacting negatively to being held or picked up. Look for those subtle changes in behavior where the animals seem to be guarding themselves from movement or loses interest in interacting with their environment.
The changing of behavior may be the only way your pet communicates a need for pain management assistance.
Below is from the AAHA / AAFP Pain Management Guidelines for Dogs & Cats:
Signs of Pain:
Loss of normal behavior:
- Decreased ambulation or activity, lethargic attitude, decreased appetite, decreased grooming (cats). Harder to assess in the hospital.
Expression of abnormal behaviors:
- Inappropriate elimination, vocalization, aggression or decreased interaction with other pets or family members, altered facial expression, altered posture, restlessness, hiding (especially in cats).
Reaction to touch:
- Increased body tension or flinching in response to gentle palpation of injured area and palpation of regions likely to be painful, e.g., neck, back, hips, elbows (cats).
Physiologic parameters:
- Elevations in heart rate, respiratory rate, body temperature, and blood pressure; pupil dilation.
Click here to view the entire AAHA / AAFP - Pain Management Guidelines
