Cats hide pain extremely effectively, making chronic pain recognition one of the most challenging and important skills for cat owners and veterinarians to develop.
Recognising chronic pain in cats is one of the most important skills for improving feline welfare because its invisibility allows significant suffering to persist undetected and untreated. Cats evolved to conceal vulnerability as a survival mechanism, meaning that a cat in chronic pain will often appear normal during a veterinary examination but shows subtle changes in home behaviour that owners observe. Educating cat owners to recognise these subtle indicators, including changes in grooming habits, activity levels, jumping behaviour, and social interaction, enables earlier pain recognition and treatment. Video consultations that allow veterinarians to see home behaviour patterns are a valuable diagnostic tool. The available treatments for feline chronic pain, including anti-NGF monoclonal antibodies, have improved substantially and reward more systematic pain recognition with genuine welfare benefit.