Pain Management in Veterinary Practice: Progress and Gaps

Veterinary pain management has improved dramatically but significant gaps remain, particularly for farm animals and exotic species.

Key Facts

Recognition that animals experience pain equivalent to humans has transformed veterinary practice since the 1980s
Multimodal analgesia (combining drugs with different mechanisms) is now standard in companion animal surgery
Farm animal pain management remains significantly less developed than small animal practice
Up to 50% of cats with chronic pain are thought to go unrecognised and untreated
Exotic animal pain management is limited by lack of validated pain scales for most species

Welfare Considerations

The philosophy that animals do not experience meaningful pain — once common in veterinary and medical education — has been comprehensively rejected by science. Yet translating this understanding into consistent clinical practice remains uneven. Companion animal surgery now routinely includes multimodal analgesia, pre-emptive pain control, and post-operative monitoring. Farm animal pain management still lags, with routine procedures like tail-docking, castration, and dehorning still frequently performed without adequate analgesia. Pain scale development for exotic species remains a critical welfare research frontier.

What You Can Do

Ensure post-operative pain management for any animal undergoing surgery
Ask veterinarians explicitly about pain management protocols for procedures
Advocate for mandatory pain relief requirements for routine farm animal procedures
Support development of pain recognition tools for exotic animals
Choose veterinary practices that take proactive pain management seriously