Do dogs need pain medication for surgeries, etc?
For many reasons, pain relief for animals has often been less of a priority than it is for humans. There are many reasons pain relief is not routinely provided to animals. Perhaps the most common is that the amount of pain endured is often underestimated because animals cannot tell you how they feel, also they often try to hide the pain (in the wild an animal who shows pain is the one the predators go for first). Side effects are another reason for under-use of many pain-relieving drugs. Some traditional human pain relievers are potentially toxic to dogs. Another common reason for ignoring pain is the mistaken assumption that pain is Mother Nature’s way of keeping the patient restrained to prevent it from harming itself. But studies clearly prove that pain increases movement and prevents rest. Animals provided with pain relief are more comfortable, move about much less and recover more quickly. Because canine behavior is a poor indicator of pain, a good rule to follow for providing pai
