Cats are notorious for hiding signs of pain. Validated pain assessment tools are transforming veterinary practice and improving welfare for cats with acute and chronic pain.
The Feline Grimace Scale represents a breakthrough for cat welfare comparable to the Sheep Grimace Scale in farm animal medicine. For the first time, vets and owners have a validated, objective tool to identify pain in an animal that has evolved to conceal it. The implications are enormous: cats with dental disease, arthritis, urinary tract disease and post-operative pain can now be assessed accurately and treated appropriately. The gap between the prevalence of chronic pain in older cats and the use of analgesia remains wide, but owner education and veterinary training in pain recognition is steadily closing it.