Pain and discomfort are some of the most common reasons for behaviour changes in dogs. Unfortunately not all pain is obvious and can be termed “unseen pain” and it often goes undetected even under a veterinary examination. This is not because vets are missing anything – but rather than often in the veterinary surgery, they literally will not see it for some of the reasons outlined below.
Mills et al, 2020 estimated that around 80% of cases may involve pain and where extreme behaviours are seen, there are many who say that not a single case did not involve pain.
- Pain is often missed in the consulting room because stress masks it.
- We think our dog is in pain because he or she still chases wildlife or runs and plays – but dogs often have inhibitory control that masks even quite serious pain.
- Animals may hide pain to avoid showing potential weakness to avoid threat.
- Dogs appear to hide pain related behaviour in there presence of someone who is not their trusted caregiver – so veterinary diagnoses is challenging.
- Assessment periods are often not long enough – dogs generally don’t show pain signs in the first 10-15 minutes of a consult and the standard veterinary consult time may not therefore allow for this.
- There is often not enough room in an exam room for gait analysis or for observing more movement and working with a lead, harness or collar on will also inhibit the ability to assess accurately.
- Subtle changes noticed by a caregiver are not something of which a vet is likely to be aware.
- Vets are not well trained in picking up neck/back or soft tissue pain and the latter of course won’t show up on x-rays – surprisingly, how to assess this is still not really taught in veterinary universities (Basingthwaite, Feb 2024, Capon & Mills, 2020).
- Just because pain isn’t in evidence, the possibility of pain should not be rejected – relying on obvious signs of pain is too limiting (Capon & Mills, 2020, Downing, 2023)
We are increasingly understanding how fascia (which connects muscle and muscle groups together to form actions) can be significant in what is termed unseen or hidden pain. (Basingthwaite, 2024 & Robertson, 2024).
Gut pain is also often under-diagnosed (Mills et al, 2020) and there are many behaviours that can manifest from issues in the gut biome. Using microbiome tests like those from Biome4Pets.com can provide detailed reports that aid the caregiver, behaviourist and vet alike (Homer et al, 2023).