Like humans, animals also are an integral part of nature even they feel pain when they suffer from illness or injury but off lately humans have become too insensitive to issues pertaining to the animal health and welfare in general. Hence, to raise awareness in humans about the health issues of animals, Animal Healthcare societies and organizations take initiatives and urge people to celebrate certain months as Awareness months.
Hence, September is celebrated as Animal Pain Awareness Month as directed by the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management (IVAPM) to escalate the awareness about pain in animals and pain management in pets. The month also concurs with human medicine’s Pain Awareness Month.
IVAPM encourages all the people and companies who are related to health care sectors like clinics, publications, veterinarians, technicians, veterinary industry, healthcare companies, and veterinary educators.
And, as a pet parent, you also need to take initiative and understand the reasons and symptoms of pain in your pet.
Therefore, as a pet health care supplies company, we feel that it is our duty to educate you about the ways to find and spot the symptoms of pain in your pet.
But before that, let’s go through the possible reasons your pet can suffer from pain.
Reasons
Pain, in most cases, is the symptom of a particular disease or injury that your pet has picked up. Some common reasons for the pain are –
- Arthritis – Causes joint pain in senior dogs
- Intestinal worm infection – Abdominal Pain
- Surgical Pain
- Cancer – Pain as a symptom of cancer in the concerned body part
- Ear infection –Pain in ears
- Lyme disease – Joint pain and body pain
- Internal or external injury
- Reluctant to play or going out
- Not climbing stairs or going down from stairs
- Mostly lying down and resisting walks and enjoyment
- Change in behavior for example – your pet might like to jump and sit on sofa but suddenly he/she doesn’t do that and prefers lying down
- Decreased appetite
- Licking a particular area or getting aggressive if you touch a particular area
- Difficulty in standing after lying down
- Seem to be dull and lethargic behavior
- Less enthusiasm even if they see their favorite toy or treat
Spotting the pain or any discomfort is very important in pets because your pet won’t tell you as they can’t speak and their basic tendency is to hide ailments. This tendency can actually cause the disease to spread or become fatal. Especially, in the case of cancer, if the pain or any discomfort is ignored, it can be life-taking.
In case of arthritis – Make sure you feed joint care supplements regularly to your senior dog. For Example – Jointgard, Arthrimed powder, and Natures Answer Glucosamine
