What is a Pain Management Clinic?

The Pain Management Clinic takes care of dogs and cats that experience chronic pain. Chronic pain is defined as pain lasting longer than 30 days, but a new definition include cases in which the pain lasts beyond the repair of the tissue that once were damaged.

Why has my pet been referred to the Pain Clinic Management Clinic?

Your pet has been referred to the Pain Management Clinic because they are likely to experience some form of chronic pain. As animals are unable to communicate, we rely more on changes of their behaviour such as: being less interactive with you, becoming aggressive, unwilling to exercise, stopping mid-way through exercise.

What happens during a Pain Management Clinic consultation?

The initial consultation generally includes a discussion of:

• the pet’s history, environment, medications, diet, activity, and exercise regime.

We will then:

• Assess your pet (e.g., clinical examination, palpation of muscles and joints, assessment of joint mobility at rest and during movement).
• Discuss your expectations as owners.

At this point, a management plan is developed which may include changes to the medications or environmental lifestyle changes. If deemed appropriate, we can also advise and perform acupuncture or interventional analgesic procedures. This can include steroids and/or local anaesthetic injections targeting the regions where pain arises. We can also advise about further specialist assessment or treatment, when indicated.

We provide a short and long-term plan and discuss possible options.

How will you quantify the level of pain my pet is experiencing and the effectiveness of the medication/intervention?

We will make note of any changes in behaviour and activity you report, we will note changes in mobility and response to our assessment and we make use of chronic pain scales developed for small animal patients such as the Liverpool Osteoarthritis in Dogs and Chronic Brief Pain Inventory among others.

What happens after the appointment?

We will summarise the findings of the consultation in a letter that you and your local vet will receive, so everyone stays up to date with relevant information.

With chronic pain it’s more about a marathon than a sprint and the plan might need to be revised from time to time to adapt to the animal’s pain levels and activity levels. Assessment intervals will be recommended on a case-by-case basis.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.