Since this month is Animal Pain Awareness Month, we thought it would be helpful to write a post for how to recognize and help pets that are painful.

Sometimes it can be difficult to know if your pet is painful because they are so good at hiding how they are feeling, which comes from having to hide weakness from potential predators when they were mostly outdoors. Many owners think that if their pet is not crying out or making obvious painful noises, they are not in pain, most of the time this is not the case. So if they’re not making noises, how do you know if your pet could be painful?

There are different kinds of pain that have different signs, so we will cover a few of the most common kinds of pain we see here.

 Like in humans, animals get arthritis which causes the joints to be painful. Common signs of this include: not wanting to go up and down stairs, not jumping up on or down from furniture, licking at the joints (“wrists” and “ankles”), difficulty getting up and/or down, not wanting to or hesitating to sit, over grooming, and general decreased activity. This type of pain is chronic and will likely be something your pet deals with for the rest of their lives.

The signs of arthritis could also be signs of acute pain like getting a sticker stuck in the paw pads or fur. Never see your pet licking? Sometimes they’re pretty sneaky, but their saliva tends to dry and turns the fur a pink-brown color.  These signs of pain generally resolve when the inciting item is removed and the infection resolves.

Another sign of pain comes from dental infection. This can cause them to have a decrease in appetite, weight loss, dropping food from either side of the mouth, or even complete inappetence. This is generally not a condition that is life-long, though in some cases of stomatitis (inflammation of the mouth) the condition might last longer. In most cases, though, there are problem teeth that can be extracted or the tartar cleaned off. Once the unhealthy teeth are gone or cleaned, and the tissue is healed the pain resolves.

These are the most common kinds of pain we see in at our clinic, though there are more general causes of pain that were not mentioned. It is very important to get your pet into your veterinarian if you are noticing any of these signs. Some of the conditions are short lived (acute) once the problem or problems (dental, thorns, infections, etc.) are resolved, but others are chronic conditions that are a natural process of the body aging. Each pet is different and therefore needs different types of medications as well as differing lengths of medication protocols. You may also need to have your pet’s bloodwork done before starting certain pain medications because of how they are metabolized.

If you think your pet is showing any signs of being in pain, make an appointment with your veterinarian and your pet's pain could be either resolved or at least easier to manage.