Dr. Stephanie Wolf talks about pain management in our pets. She sys our pets feel a wide variety of discomfort all the way from slight to moderate to severe. A cat putting her paw on a hot stove, a dog just coming back from the vet after being neutered to an older animal that may have chronic pain issues from arthritis to some other chronic ailment that they may have. She says it important for us to be understanding that evolutionary, our animals are not directly shown to exhibit pain in the traditional sense. We need to be a little more subtle about figuring out exactly if our animals are comfortable or not.
A few ways would be to check their appetite; maybe they aren’t as enthusiastic about going for a walk; maybe they are lagging behind; maybe they just don’t want to go at all; maybe their head position is slight off; maybe they are hunched; maybe they don’t jump on the furniture the way we are thinking they should. There are lots of subtle ways of being able to tell if our animals are comfortable. We just have to be slightly more familiar with them. If our animals are exhibiting any of these sorts of signs, perhaps the ear position, the facial expression or they are not just themselves, speak to your veterinarian and start the conversation. What constitutes the need for pain medication, when can we start using perhaps natural supplements, or some alternative therapies. Dr. Wolf says there are so many ways out there that we can control our animal’s pain. She says to clue in. Look at your animal, critically view what their normal day to day activity is. Make sure you understand what could cause us pain and the sooner we clue in the sooner we are going to be able to handle our pet’s discomfort and make them pain-free
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