Pain Management

Veterinary patients feel pain and discomfort under the same circumstances as people do. Pet-pain is reflected in your pet’s behavior, responsiveness, and mobility. Pain can cause your pet to lose excessive weight, have higher blood pressure from the stress of dealing with pain, lower the immune system, and decrease your pet’s activity. Pets with unmanaged pain and injuries often unknowingly make their pain worse by repeatedly agitating the area in pain.

Signs of pain include:

• restless movement
• constant licking
• whining or other vocalizations
• changes in sleep cycles and food or water consumption
• protective behavior of a limb or other area of the body
• a glazed or empty stare
• unusually aggressive behavior
• consistently strange postures or resting positions.

At West Flamingo Animal Hospital, we know that recognizing and alleviating pain in animals is the essence of good patient care. That’s why we require pain management strategies for all our patients that are undergoing a procedure. With most procedures, our patients are given pain medication prior to the procedure as well as after.