What I've learned about pain management

Pain management is a journey and here are some of my biggest lessons

Photo by Tadeusz Lakota on Unsplash

Last weekend I attended the Chronic Pain Symposium organized by Canine Arthritis Management. It was inspiring to hear from so many professionals who all share the same goal: reducing pain and helping dogs live better and longer lives.

I’m not a vet. I’m not here to advise on medication or a pain management plan for your dog. I’m a dog guardian caring for a dog with lifelong chronic conditions. I’m a behavior professional working with countless dogs experiencing chronic pain.

Today I want to share with you what I learned about pain management and what’s made the biggest difference in my life with Larkin.

Pain management is the *whole* goal

When we talk about the connection between health and behavior what we’re talking about is that how dogs feel in their bodies impacts the rest of their lives. It’s important to recognize this. It’s also important to recognize signs of discomfort when they show up. But these are not our main goals. They’re a means toward our main goal.

Our most essential goal is to effectively address and manage pain.

It’s not enough to know that pain impacts behavior or be able to see when a dog is in pain. We must do something about it.

Effective pain management is a welfare issue.

“Pain is a complex multi-dimensional experience involving sensory and emotional components. In other words, ‘pain is not just about how it feels, but how it makes you feel’ and it is those unpleasant feelings that cause the suffering we associate with pain.” (Monteiro et al., 2022)

For a chronic condition, such as osteoarthritis (OA), pain is the main problem. When we talk about managing OA what we’re really talking about is managing pain.

It might seem odd to make an emphasis on such an obvious fact, but you’d be surprised how often we don’t focus on pain as the priority.

I’ll never forget walking out of my doctor’s office years ago after undergoing tests for a painful chronic condition. They ran all the diagnostics they could, took my bloodwork, and sent me on my way. Not a single person mentioned my pain or offered medication, despite it being the reason I sought help in the first place.

So I never forget that no matter what condition we’re looking to treat in our dogs, addressing their discomfort should always be our first priority.

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