Pain recognition in dogs has improved dramatically with validated assessment tools, but many dogs still live with untreated chronic pain due to owner misattribution and veterinary underdiagnosis.
Dog pain management has two components: recognition and treatment. Recognition requires moving beyond expectation of vocalisation as a pain indicator — dogs often mask pain through evolutionary adaptation as social species that may be abandoned if perceived as weak. Validated pain scales provide objective criteria. Treatment options have expanded significantly: NSAIDs, gabapentin, amantadine, and physiotherapy each address different pain pathways. Multimodal approaches combining pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment consistently outperform single-modal approaches for chronic pain conditions.