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EmailIphone Application    Posted: 16th November 2017
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Understanding chronic pain
Eighty per cent of dogs over eight years of age are in pain with arthritis.
Treatment of chronic pain ‘is still an issue’

Chronic pain - what is it? This was the question asked by veterinary surgeon Louise Clark during her lecture at the London Vet Show today (16 November).

Although we are much better now at treating acute pain, which is the body's protective mechanism for staying alive, the treatment of chronic pain (pain that continues when it should not) is still an issue.

Chronic pain is all about how it makes you feel and the emotional response that is produced and the veterinary surgeon needs to look at the behavioural expression of pain in the animal. In people, chronic pain is associated with anxiety, depression and sleep disorders and it is now thought that dogs also express such pain in a similar way.

Chronic pain can be subdivided into three main categories:
  • Neuropathic such as amputations and nerve injuries
  • Nociceptive or inflammatory such as chronic inflammation and osteoarthritis
  • Generalised mixed pain

Louise pointed out that if we can understand where the pain is coming from and the physiology of the pain, then it will be easier to determine its treatment.

She explained that the most important organ involved in chronic pain is the brain. Pain changes the function and structure on the central nervous system (CNS), so pain is very much in the brain. It is amplified through the CNS and translated into an emotional output.

MRI has identified how physical pain can be highlighted in the brain in the limbic system - it is the limbic system that expresses lack of motivation due to pain.

So when treating chronic pain it is vital to recognise the way the brain is exhibiting the emotional effects of the pain it is detecting.

At the end of her lecture, Louise showed a short video which highlighted how our pets cannot show us or tell us about their pain. She then pointed out that 80 per cent of dogs over eight years of age are in pain with arthritis.

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Cold-water dip to raise funds for Vetlife

News Story 1
 The veterinary mental health charity Vetlife is inviting the veterinary community to join it for a sponsored cold-water dip.

The event will take place at Walpole Bay, Margate, on 17 May during Mental Health Awareness Week. Participants of all abilities can join in the challenge and are advised to bring a towel, a hot drink, a snack, and warm clothes to get changed into afterwards.

Those taking part are being asked to try to raise £100 each to support the work of the charity.

Details about how to take part can be found here. 

Click here for more...
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