Veterinarian Ryan Johnstone of West Cork Home Vets shares some of his experience.
The boiler man came over at the start of winter to service the boiler. After about 15 minutes of trying he opened the back door and said ‘you don’t have any oil in the tank!’ His tone of voice told me that this was a pretty obvious pre-requisite to boiler servicing, but I had no idea what the necessary requirements were for boiler servicing. Where I come from, the only time I had thought about heating systems is when bushfires come too close to the house. It didn’t seem obvious to me to check the oil levels before servicing and at the same time it seemed unclear to the boiler man that some people don’t think about boilers as much as he does.
This reminded me of an incident soon after I graduated from university as a vet.
A young man brought in his middle aged Labrador who was walking on three legs because he had just ruptured his cruciate ligament. After diagnosing the issue, I asked if he would like a few days of anti-inflammatories to help with the pain. He replied, ‘Oh no I don’t think he is in pain.’ I pointed to the leg that he was not placing on the ground, ‘why do you think he is not using that leg?’. It puzzled me as to how he could not recognise that his dog was in pain and that was causing him not to walk properly, however I had failed to recognise that most people don’t spend all day assessing and relieving pain in animals. I was the boiler man of animals.
It actually surprises me how often people bring in their pets with a severe lameness and then proceed to explain that they don’t think their animal is in pain. So today I thought I would spend a bit of time on pain. First some definitions, as pain can mean different things to different people.
Pain in the hole: Someone who effortlessly irritates you.
Pain in the neck: Similar to pain in the hole.
Pain de campagne: a delicious rustic country style loaf of bread.
The definition we are most interested in is an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience.
Today we will stick to the sensory part of pain. Sensory pain in our animals is usually expressed through a change in movement or behaviour. Pain in the back legs, including hips, usually results in varying degrees of lameness, a shorter stride and bunny hopping (bringing both legs forward at the same time) especially when going up stairs. It is often accompanied by significant muscle mass loss, which contributes to the mobility issue. In the front legs pain is most easily identified by the raising of the head when the sore leg is placed on the ground. A dog’s head should maintain the same level when walking/running, but you often see an obvious bob of the head when you observe animals walking around outside. Next time you are strolling around your neighbourhood, watch the dogs carefully and see if you can identify any signs of pain.
Changes in behaviour such as increased aggression, reduced sociability or more time resting can also be a sign of pain.
Pain is often more difficult to identify in cats. They may change their willingness or ability to jump up or down from things or change their behaviour similar to that mentioned above.
So now we have identified the pain, what are we going to do about it?
There are countless options for mild pain. Examples of some of the more common ones are rest, massage, heat and cold therapy, hydro and physiotherapy, TENS, acupuncture/trigger point therapy, turmeric and CBD oil. These have varying levels of evidence and efficacy and are definitely worth a try.
For moderate to severe pain we often turn to pharmaceuticals. Sometimes people are not so keen to use pharmaceuticals. I think this is due to a worry about side effects in combination with a bias towards something that is natural (the appeal to nature fallacy), and a healthy sprinkling of disdain for pharmaceutical companies. I would encourage people to try and move away from the natural/non-natural binary because it is not helpful in deciding what is best for your animal. Natural things can help or harm your animal just as much as non-natural things. Try to think of it in terms of benefits vs harmful effects. In general, we have a pretty good idea of the side effects of pain relief medications and are usually easily able to deal with them in an acceptable manner if they occur.
I hope this article has helped you understand a little bit about pain and its effects. Apologies, I have no recommendations for how to get rid of any pains in the hole. Or is it pain in the holes? Not sure.
