Pain in companion animals is frequently missed by owners because animals suppress behavioral pain signals, and even subtle signs of chronic pain go unrecognized and untreated in millions of animals.
Companion animal pain recognition is a welfare education priority. The same evolutionary mechanisms that make prey animals effective survivors also make them expert pain concealers. Animals that appear normal may be living with chronic pain assessed only indirectly through careful behavioral observation. Veterinary advances in pain assessment have outpaced owner education, creating a gap where animals suffer unnecessarily because their owners do not know what to look for. Integrating behavioral pain assessment into routine wellness care and providing owner education materials about subtle pain signs represents a high-impact welfare improvement available at relatively low cost.