Veterinary medicine has made significant advances in recognizing and treating pain in companion animals — but gaps in practice mean many animals still receive inadequate pain relief.
Pain management in veterinary medicine has transformed remarkably over recent decades — from a discipline where post-operative analgesia was routinely withheld over unfounded concerns about addiction or masking complications, to one that increasingly recognizes multimodal pain management as a cornerstone of ethical veterinary care. The remaining gap is in chronic pain — arthritis in particular affects the majority of older dogs and cats and is dramatically undertreated. Animals with chronic pain often adapt their behavior rather than vocalize, making owner recognition difficult. Advances in validated pain assessment scales, owner education, and species-specific analgesic options are all improving outcomes, but the veterinary profession still needs to do more to make routine pain assessment standard care.