Pain management for pets gets some respect
By Kim Campbell Thornton
March 24, 2008
It’s been coming for more than 10 years now–the idea that an animal’s pain should be managed the same way a person’s is. People used to think that animals didn’t feel pain at all. Seventeenth-century French philosopher Rene Descartes argued that animals couldn’t reason, didn’t have thoughts or feelings, and didn’t feel pain, a belief that continued throughout much of the next 300 years. But when people started viewing pets as members of the family, that began to change, not least at the veterinary clinic.
It hit home with me a dozen years ago when my 10.5-year-old greyhound had her leg amputated for bone cancer. For pain at the hospital, she received what were then state-of-the-art patches that released pain medication throughout the day. Rimadyl was new then, and she got that, too, after she went home.
Some veterinarians think that pain itself is a management tool, keeping animals quiet until their wounds heal. More progressive views are that animals heal more quickly when they’re not in pain.
So what prompted this meditation on pain (besides the pain in my neck from sleeping on the wrong pillow)? I’ve written a lot about pain management in animals over the last 10 years, so I tend to pay attention when I see other articles on it. Last month, on my way home from New York, I clipped an article by Sharon Peters that appeared in USA Today, about a new stem cell procedure that can help dogs and cats with severe arthritis. The process involves extracting stem cells from the animal’s own fat and injecting them into the joints.
That’s cool.
It’s also expensive, and it’s also unclear how long the effects will last and whether an animal will experience only “slight” improvement or “very substantial” improvement. But it’s another potential weapon in the arsenal against pain.
More recently, I received Morris Animal Foundation’s newsletter, animalnews, which contained a special report on pain management. The first article was about a new class of drugs that may help animals with bone cancer who don’t receive amputation remain more comfortable for a longer period. Animals often get around just fine with only three legs, but not every dog or cat is a good candidate for amputation, especially if they’re overweight or arthritic. I think of Savanna as a pioneer in this field, and I’m always interested to see what’s changed since she was treated.
Other MAF-funded studies involve a new technique to reduce leg pain in horses with laminitis, the condition that contributed to the decision to euthanize Barbaro, and effectively recognizing and treating pain in birds. I’ll be watching Larry Bird a lot more closely for behavior changes that might indicate arthritis. He is more than 20 years old now, after all.
According to Dr. Joanne Paul-Murphy, who recently completed a study of the efficacy of drug treatments in relieving arthritis pain in Amazon parrots, birds show the same signs of pain as other animals: changes in behavior, such as suddenly becoming withdrawn or aggressive, changes in grooming behavior, and lack of appetite. So far, so good on the Larry front, but I’m glad to know what to look for and that treatments are available.
That notion that other (non human) animals can’t feel pain has always baffled and disgusted me. Biology is biology.. any animal with a nervous system must feel pain. We can’t quantify it.. but how arrogant of humans to assume that biologically simpler animals don’t feel pain. And of course, the notion that more complex animals like mammals don’t feel pain is.. well, I don’t know what word to use.
Comment by EmilyS — March 24, 2008 @ 5:30 pm
Colorado State University’s Veterinary Hospital is doing a lot of work on pain management.
The website is http://www.csuvets.colostate.edu/pain/
The picture in that site is my daughter who is a veterinarian as well as a D.O. physician.
CSU runs the Cener for Comparative and Integrative Pain Medicine and uses a lot of ways to relieve the animals from pain including acupuncture and massages on arthritic dogs.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — March 24, 2008 @ 6:41 pm
Thank you for this article, I have always loved the quote: “You can tell a lot about a country by the way in which they treat their animals. Mahatma Gandi”
Dr. Couto from Ohio State University has also been making great progress in pain management and extending the lives of greyhounds with Osteosarcoma.
Comment by Alisha — March 24, 2008 @ 7:21 pm
And don’t forget: Even human children have suffered from the notion that “not-yet-fully-humans” don’t feel pain. Before pain relief was common in open-heart surgery in infants, the success rate of the procedures was abysmal. Once pain relief became more routinely employed the infants’ survival rates skyrocketed.
This example begs the question: How many pets have died as a result of lax pain protocols in veterinary medicine?
Comment by Dr. Patty Khuly — March 25, 2008 @ 7:19 am
During the short time I worked in veterinary medicine in the early 90s, the Vets I worked for did not use pain meds for patients routinely. It wasn’t that they said animals don’t feel pain but rather that animals manage pain differently and better than humans. I am in favor of today’s practice of giving pain meds routinely (post surgery and such) but I do agree with the idea that animals manage pain differently and better than we do. In observing my own pets post surgery, I think the meds aid them in recovery.
Comment by slt — March 25, 2008 @ 7:23 am
I’m surprised there’s been such controversy over pain management in pets. Kitty was diagnosed with glaucoma recently, and my vet immediately said it was very painful and prescribed medication for that. I do agree that pets manage pain differently as most of us have observed. Glad to see this issue is being discussed so openly.
Comment by Carol — March 25, 2008 @ 7:58 am