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Pain Management

WHAT DOES pain behaviour LOOK LIKE?

Pain is often missed in animals because outside of acute injuries or during illness, they rarely cry out or show obvious signs. Instead, pain commonly appears as changes in behaviour, movement, performance, mood, or routine. Unfortunately, many owners mistake these changes for ageing, stubbornness, laziness, or behavioural problems

the reason pain behaviour is so subtle

Most painful conditions start acutely painful and as time passes they become chronic, meaning they linger for longer periods and flare up following activity, weather changes or by other external factors. Long term discomfort creates anxiety, stress and fear in animals, leading to reluctance to exercise, changes in sleep patterns, drops in exercise tolerance and a gradual shift in demeanour leading to anxious, frustrated or even aggressive behaviour.

Other Useful Resources

Summary-of-the-frequency-of-occurrence-of-each-of-the-behaviours-n-24-of-the-Ridden.png
Equine pain scale.png

Ridden Pain Ethogram

Equine Pain Scale

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canine acute pain scale.png

LOAD Questionnaire

Canine Pain Scale

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Quality of Life

References

  • Bennett, D., Zainal Ariffin, S.M. and Johnston, P. (2012) 'Osteoarthritis in the cat: 1. How common is it and how easy to recognise?', Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 14(1), pp. 65-75. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11148909

  • ​Dyson, S., Berger, J., Ellis, A.D. and Mullard, J. (2018) 'Development of an ethogram for a pain scoring system in ridden horses and its application to determine the presence of musculoskeletal pain', Equine Veterinary Education, 30(8), pp. 476-494. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/eve.12710

  • ​Malkani, R., Paramasivam, S. and Wolfensohn, S. (2024) 'How does chronic pain impact the lives of dogs: an investigation of factors that are associated with pain using the Animal Welfare Assessment Grid', Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 11, Article 1374858. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2024.1374858

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