Compassionate Pain Management For Pets
Your pet deserves to live a long, comfortable, and active life. The professionals at Pound Ridge Veterinary Center are committed to the relief and avoidance of pain for your pets, in both acute and chronic forms.
Acute Pain
Acute pain comes on suddenly, typically as a result of an injury, surgery, or infection. Fortunately, acute pain is usually temporary and goes away once the condition causing it is treated. One important way to minimize acute pain is to anticipate it and aggressively manage it with a pre-emptive approach. This is particularly true in surgical situations or when treating dental disease.
Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is longer lasting and usually comes on more gradually. Common sources include arthritis or progressive diseases like cancer. As our pets live longer, managing pain in senior pets becomes more and more important. Appropriate pain management helps pets enjoy a happier, more comfortable, and fuller life.
Common Signs of Pet Pain
- Lethargy
- Restlessness / Constantly seeking to find a more comfortable position
- Increased vocalization
- Aggression when approached or handled
- Decreased grooming
- Change in behavior
- Changes in eating or sleeping patterns
- Seeking more affection than usual
- Licking or chewing a particular area of the body
- Body language cues like flattened ears and facial expressions
Arthritis & Joint Pain
Many dogs and cats develop degenerative joint disease (osteoarthritis) at some point in their lives. Arthritis can be a painful, chronic, and debilitating disease. Symptoms include changes in mobility, lameness, or stiffness.
Our ultimate goal is designing effective, appropriate treatment. Along with taking a history and performing a careful examination, radiographs (X-rays) often help to characterize the nature and degree of arthritis, as well as identifying the affected joints. Our approach for managing arthritis is multi-modal, offering several avenues of therapy used in conjunction with one another to increase effectiveness of treatment. We may recommend a combination of pain medications, prescription diets, and weight loss and exercise programs to increase mobility.
End of Life Care
Caring for our patients at every stage of life, we value the important role we play as they approach end of life. Our responsibility and an integral part of our mission is to provide palliative care for pets with terminal illnesses, compassionate pet euthanasia when appropriate, and tools for memorials and grief support.
