Vet Reveals What To Do When You Suspect Your Pet Is In Pain, But Hiding It

It’s common knowledge today in veterinary medicine that animals that are in pain do not thrive. Pain causes stress on the body, and over time can impact a companion animals overall health - also impeding healing.


The ability to treat a companion animal’s pain has made strides - which is a important thing - but the first step in being able to do that is identifying the fact that a pet is in pain to begin with.

And thus, my main purpose for getting in touch with Clarkson.

After writing about end-of life issues and euthanasia recently, several readers got in touch wondering how, in the first place, do you know that your pet is experiencing pain?

Well, it can be a bit challenging, but there are ways to tell.

But, first things first.

Make no mistake; pets experience pain just as we do, not less than we do - and they interpret it the same way. Animals have skin, tissue, muscles, joints, and nerve pathways, like humans.

There is one difference in humans and animals: One unfortunate aspect of once living in the wild that they have not lost, is that for animals, showing pain or lameness puts them at risk in many ways.

So, how do you ascertain if your pet is in pain? Clarkson offers some tips and clues to help you identify that:

Obvious -

Vocalizing, growling, whimpering, limping

Not-so-easy to distinguish -

Decreased activity level

Changes in behavior (pets many times with act withdrawn)
Accidents in the house (because they don’t want to get up/out due to painful mobility)

Shivering

Excessive grooming/licking (pets with arthritis do this commonly, or those with stomach pain)

Abnormal body position (not lying down naturally or favoring a part of the body)

Pensive posture; not erect, stiff-backed

Decreased appetite

Their behavior isn’t what you’d expect when you go to touch them.

Isolating themselves (cats more so will hide under a bed)

The most common culprits behind pain are sprains and arthritis.

Another interesting issue contributing to pain? Dentition. Clarkson indicated in our conversation, that more pets over the age of 3 or 4 years are seen in their office more frequently who are having dental pain. Indicators of that are:

Drooling

Leaving their hard food, but eating any wet food, if
eating at all

Taking longer to eat

Choosing to forgo treats

Dogs not chewing on their chew toys or bones

Tilting their head in an odd way

Mouth odor

Adding that pet owners are usually pretty intuitive, Clarkson says that a good way to determine if your pet is suffering from pain is to engage with them - petting them or gentle grooming or massage to help localize the source of pain.

Nobody likes to see their pet in pain or even think of them in pain, so these tips should help you to be a little more aware of the pain indicators your pet may be displaying.

Source: http://www.annarbor.com/pets/local-vet-gives-tips-on-determining-if-a-pet-is-in-pain-offers-safe-ways-that-it-can-be-relieved/

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