How can you tell when your older dog is in pain?
My border collie, Mikey, is 13 years old. he is a trooper and protective companion for my wife. compared to a humans life, Mikey is 91 years old. i know he must have arthritis. he sometimes yelps when he moves a certain way. the vet has given us arthritis medication for him. my question is this: should i continually give Mikey his medicene every 6 hours or should we wait to hear his next yelp? our vet was not much help. he left this decision to us.
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You have to decide based on your knowledge of the dog. As a general rule, if he is less active, less willing to move about, if his appetite decreases, if he stops normal play behavior – those are signs of pain. You have to balance that against the realization that an older animal will have a natural decrease in those activities. How do you know the difference? Well, if you give the pain meds and he’s more active, more playful, then he most likely was painful.
syz…....thanks for the answer. will watch him closely and make a decision. john
The way I make that decision is to weigh the potential harmful side effects (toxicity to liver or kidneys usually) with the level of pain they are experiencing.
As far as deciding when to give it..
If he is currently in pain I would medicate him and observe him closely to see what, if any, benefit he is getting from the medication. It is usually pretty dramatic if they have been suffering from chronic pain. You will see the clock turned back a couple of years in terms of activity and playfulness.
I would give it as it was prescribed especially if it is an anti-inflammatory type medication since they work best when they can gain the upper hand over the inflammation and a steady dosing works better to that end than a hit or miss approach.
Then you have to decide if the improved quality of life is worth the possibility of decreasing the quantity of life. Almost all meds carry a price tag with their use and only the pet’s loved ones can weigh those costs. That’s why most vets leave the decision up to the family.
We have a similar issue with out Terrier. He has a dislocated bone in his neck and when he has been playing hard, or barking at the neighbor dog, he looks to me like he is in pain. He jumps on his chair sideways, or stays on the floor longer than usual. I just have to make a judgment based on his behavior about giving him the pain medication.
We have placed his food and water bowls up off the floor, so he doesn’t have to bend down to eat.
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