Cats instinctively mask injury and illness to protect themselves from predators. Unfortunately, their ploy may work too well and leave them suffering with undetected and unrelieved pain.
What Is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain differs from acute pain in that it will persist for several months, years, or even the rest of your cat’s life. Common causes include osteoarthritis, cancer, periodontal diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, post-declaw syndrome, and feline lower urinary tract disease.
Treatment Approaches
It is important to treat pain immediately and continuously. It takes less effort, less medication and less intervention to take care of pain in its early stages versus waiting until the animal is in excruciating pain. If chronic pain is not controlled consistently, it can lead to a “wind-up” phenomenon that causes the cat to feel more pain, even if the illness is not getting worse.
The Difference Between Cats and Dogs
Although cats experience pain in the same way dogs and people do, they do not metabolize many medications like these other species.Because of this, there are fewer drug options for cats. Prescribing nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), in particular, can present challenges.
NSAIDs are a great pain management medication. An NSAID short-term may serve a feline patient well … but with [complementary] options available, the long-term use of NSAIDs in cats is probably a questionable option.
Is Your Cat in Pain?
Your cat might show pain with very subtle behavior changes, so it is important to become familiar with your cat’s routines. Pain relief will speed healing and improve your pet’s quality of life. If you notice signs, make an appointment with your veterinarian. Before prescribing medications, your veterinarian may run blood tests. If medication is prescribed, periodic blood testing will be done to monitor your cat’s response.
| Warning! Never give human pain relievers to your pets. Some human drugs, such as acetaminophen can be lethal to cats. Even though many of the medications utilized for cats and dogs in pain come straight from the human medicine discipline it is critical for pet owners to understand that it is completely inappropriate, life-threatening and potentially fatal to reach into their own medicine cabinet for pain relievers for their pets. The only medications that should be used for pet pain are those prescribed by the pet’s veterinarian. |
All information in this post is from AAHA.
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