Dogs in pain often mask their suffering. Understanding pain indicators and ensuring appropriate management is a core veterinary and owner welfare responsibility.
Dog pain management is one of the most important welfare frontiers in companion animal medicine. Because dogs hide pain so effectively, significant suffering often goes unrecognised and untreated. An arthritic dog that has "slowed down" may have been in chronic pain for months before the owner notices. Welfare depends on owners and veterinarians developing sharper observation skills, using validated pain assessment tools, and having a low threshold for pain investigation and treatment. The explosion of validated canine pain scales and facial coding tools gives veterinary professionals better instruments than ever before. Early, appropriate analgesia — including non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, gabapentinoids, and newer pain-targeting biologics — can transform quality of life for dogs with chronic conditions.