Signs of Pain in Dogs and Cats

Dogs and cats excel at hiding pain, and this makes them very unlike us humans who let everyone know when we’ve a hangnail. Heck, we even talk about pain and illness we haven’t had: “If I get the flu, I’ll get so sick….” As if describing our own real or anticipated pain weren’t enough, we describe our children’s pain, our grandparents’ pain and what soap opera characters are suffering.

Pets Hide Pain
Think how differently pets react to pain. They are positively silent on the topic. Is it because, unlike us, pets don’t have pain? No. In fact, laboratory dogs & cats are used in pain research. Pets disguise pain because only those dogs and cats before them who hid suffering survived. In the animal world, disclosing pain or suffering hung a cafeteria sign over your head offering warm lunch.

Signs of Pain
If pets have pain, and are predisposed to hide the fact, how can we tell if they are suffering? In the vet clinic, we can measure blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate, which are generally higher than normal in painful pets.

Normal HR RR & BP
For example, a normal adult cat’s
blood pressure (mean BP) is 100-150,
heart rate (HR) is 140-220, and
respiratory rate (RR) is 24-42.

A normal adult dog’s
blood pressure (BP)is 90-120,
heart rate (HR) is 60-140, and
respiratory rate (RR) is 10-30.

When a cat or dog has pain, HR, BP and RR are generally higher than normal.

What can a family observe at home that might also indicate pain? The following list contains more than a dozen behaviors that we can observe at home in painful pets:
• Walking funny, such as taking shorter strides than normal
• Holding the head at a strange angle
• Keeping a paw off the ground
• Moving slowly
• Sleeping lots
• No interest in toys
• No interest in food
• No interest in the family
• Urinating or defecating where they shouldn’t
• Yowling, meowing or barking
• Aggression, for example, when we place a collar around the neck or when children accidentally bang against old bones
• Acting submissively
• Panting
• Repeated circling and inability to lay down and rest in one position

What to do if there's pain?If you see any of these signs, work with your veterinarian to identify the cause of the problem. There’s no reason for our pets to be in pain when we have so many excellent medications and herbal formulas available. Over the next few entries, we might discuss some of our newest pain relieving medications.