Veterinary pain management has improved dramatically over the past 30 years, but gaps remain — ensuring your animal receives adequate perioperative analgesia is a welfare responsibility.
Perioperative pain management in companion animal surgery has improved enormously through the development and adoption of validated analgesic protocols, pain assessment tools, and multimodal approaches that address pain through multiple mechanisms. However, practice quality remains variable. Owners who advocate for their animal by asking about analgesic protocols, monitoring for pain at home post-operatively, and reporting concerns to their veterinarian directly improve welfare outcomes. Veterinary practices that invest in pain assessment tools, staff training, and multimodal analgesic protocols provide welfare-superior care that owners should actively seek out.