How do you know when your dog is in Pain?

Hi Everyone,

I’m sure you are all aware but it’s currently National Pet Month all through April and with that in mind I wanted to talk about something none of us want our pets to experience, pain.

Let me start with a question.

Do you think you can notice if your dog is in pain?

As much as I’m sure we would all like to answer yes, the truth is it’s harder than you think to detect.

Pain itself is actually very subjective and as with people, some dogs are more stoic with pain than others (Gruen, White & Hare, 2020). This can make it exceptional difficult for us as owners to know what’s going on with our animals. Our dogs cannot simply say “I have a headache” or “my knee is hurting”.

On many occasions I hear for owners “if my dog was in pain they would yelp”. Again, relate this to your human experience. Is that true when you twist your ankle? Sure, you may scream at the time, but as the healing starts and it can remain sore for weeks do you continue to scream? My guess is no.

In cases of acute pain or injury – the yelp is an immediate indication of an issue. However, you many not directly witness this, and this makes the secondary signs of an injury all the more critical to be aware of, these may include;

· Areas of heat – this happens as blood rushes to the injured area.

· Areas of swelling – swelling is the body’s way of stopping the animal using the affected area and causing further damage.

· Lameness – lifting the leg, not putting it on the ground to prevent further acute pain

I’m sure many owners would be aware of these but what about the more subtle signs? Would you notice them so easily?

· Has your dogs sleeping pattern changed? Are the sleeping more, less or more disturbed than normal? Are they choosing a different place to sleep? Did they used to be able to curl up and can’t anymore?

· Changes in grooming? Is you dog unable to lick and clean certain areas that they used to? Are they licking and area more than normal? Not tolerating being brushed anymore?

· Are they more aggressive or appearing moodier than normal? Less tolerant of the children?

· Have they become more sensitive to louder noises or drops in temperature?

· Are they not able to do what the used to? Jumping in the car? Onto the sofa etc?

I know these signs can appear very vague. They equally could have other causes outside of an injury and pain but the more you notice these things the more information is available to form a full diagnosis. Disappointedly sometimes these signs are written off as just the dog “getting older”. As with us humans, pain does not

have to be an inevitability of age. If you suspect you dog is in pain please speak to your vet, equally consider physiotherapy as a tool to help manage and ultimately prevent pain in your pet – they would ask you if they could….

My very best wishes to you and your animals in National Pet Month.

Gruen, M., White, P., & Hare, B. (2020). Do dog breeds differ in pain sensitivity? Veterinarians and the public believe they do. PLOS ONE, 15(3), e0230315. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230315