How to Recognize Pain in Your Pet
It has been proven that by effectively controlling the pain your pet may experience after a surgical procedure, their healing times and recovery times are greatly reduced. Often the medications that are sent home to reduce pain also reduce inflammation, which is beneficial with healing wounds and incisions. Recognizing pain in dogs and cats can be difficult. They often do not react like people do in the same situations.
Included here are some behaviors to monitor in your pet during their post-operative recovery. Although not all of these occur in every painful pet and not every painful pet shows these signs, they may help as a guide in being sure we are doing everything possible to make their recovery as smooth and as painless as possible.
| Behavioral Response | Dogs | Cats |
| Vocalization | Groan, whimper, growl, whine | Groan, growl, purr |
| Facial expression | Fixed stare, glazed appearance | Furrowed brow, squinting |
| Body posture | Hunched, prayer position (hind-quarters up in air, front end down on ground), laying on side | Generally laying sternal (feet under them) |
| Self-awareness | Protective of wound or leg, not putting weight on limb, chewing or rubbing wound or surgical site | Same as dog |
| Activity level | Restless or restricted movement, trembling Circling or lying very motionless | Not wanting to jump up to normal levels |
| Attitude | Increased aggression or more timid | Seeking comfort or hiding, may see aggressiveness |
| Appetite | Decreased | Decreased |
| Urinary and bowel habits | Increased urination, failure of housetraining, retaining urine | Failure to use litter box |
| Grooming | Loss of shine to hair coat, particularly with chronic pain | Failure to groom coat, particularly with chronic pain |
| Response to touch | Protecting, biting, vocalizing, withdrawing, turning away | Protecting, biting, scratching, vocalizing, withdrawing, escaping, turning away |
Adverse effects of Pain Medications:
Anti-inflammatory medications, such as Rimadyl and aspirin, have the potential for kidney and liver side effects. Also, intestinal ulceration or intestinal upset has been seen in correlation with any of these medications. All of the anti-inflammatory medications decrease platelet function, therefore causing a potential for bleeding problems.
On the positive side, most of these side effects have a decreased potential of occurring with short-term use and at low doses. Most of our post surgical pain medications are prescribed for short-term use. Your pet's attending veterinarian will also take into consideration your pet's age, recent blood work, and previous history when deciding how safe they feel it is to prescribe these pain medications. Please discontinue the use of the pain medication and call Elliott Bay Animal Hospital if your pet on any pain medications shows signs of not wanting to eat, vomiting, diarrhea, black and tarry stools, or severe lethargy.
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