Comments on: Pain management for pets gets some respect

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:58:09 +0000

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.

By: slt

slt — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:23:24 +0000

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.

By: Dr. Patty Khuly

Dr. Patty Khuly — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:19:33 +0000

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?

By: Alisha

Alisha — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:21:45 +0000

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.

By: Colorado Transplant

Colorado Transplant — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:41:07 +0000

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.

By: EmilyS

EmilyS — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:30:26 +0000

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.