Bella going to the vet today for back leg lameness :-(

[pstinard]

Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

Here are some words on dogs in pain and just my own opinion but it's based on years of reading about and observing canine pain, dog pack dynamics, canine instincts and behavior, etc., and years and years of working with dogs in foster and my own dogs and hundreds of vet visits with hurting dogs.

I'd give my dog half doses of pain Rx if I were very fearful of it but I'd want any baby in my guardianship not to be in pain when I knew they had it, despite how well he or she is masking the pain. But a limping dog is no doubt feeling pain or the dog would use the leg normally. Pain medicine won't mask their pain to the point they are going to injure themselves unless they are over-medicated. I hate the idea of a dog suffering simply because they won't cry out or whine or talk and tell us how they ache and hurt, which they never can do.

I hurt but still walk on my painful hip and leg when I have to - so do dogs. But I have medication to ease that pain - cannot imagine living in pain with sleep being my only outlet from it. Either pain Rx or anti-inflammatories could keep a little one far more comfortable for the next weeks and relieve the stress of pain and if far better than hurting.

All dogs are stoic to some degree and hide their discomfort to every extent possible instinctively in order to try to stay safe and keep themselves from being shunned/left behind by their pack or attacked by other animals because they are weak. That instinct often requires they needlessly suffer in domestication now that we know they feel pain but are usually masters at hiding all but sudden or shocking type pain. Dogs with traumatic amputations on one leg will still act friendly, wag their tail and even try to play once a little time has passed after the initial trauma. But sentient animals like canines hurt when they have painful medical conditions, injuries or surgery and need human intervention and help when they do.

Thanks for the input! As I recall, the vet said that since Bella showed no signs of arthritis, her luxating patella is not painful or inflamed at this point in time. I did a quick internet search, and found the same information. Here is a quote from Kneecap Dislocation in Dogs | petMD :

"Typically, a dog with a dislocated kneecap will exhibit prolonged abnormal hindlimb movement, occasional skipping or hindlimb lameness, and sudden lameness.
The dog will rarely feel pain or discomfort once the kneecap is out of position, only feeling pain at the moment the kneecap slides out of the thigh bone's ridges."


I think that this standpoint is where my vet is coming from--she (the diagnosing vet) didn't want to overmedicate. But now that you have me thinking about it, I'll put in a call to the vet, just to be sure.

[ladyjane]

My pups and foster pups have always been given an anti inflammatory for patellar luxation flare ups. Every single case I have had has been given Metacam or Rimadyl and been put on cage rest. Most times they improve and the recommendation has been no surgery.....my vet and also the ortho vet I use tend to shy away from surgery on adult pups with patellar luxation.
As for pain meds, they were only given with a torn CCL but the surgery has happened within days so they were not on the meds for long.
Hope this helps.

[yorkietalkjilly]

Here are some more thoughts and opinion on the subject:

Human kneecap partial subluxations are almost always painful and almost immediately start an inflammatory process in the surrounding tissue of the joint once they progress past the earliest stage, which can turn to an enthesopathy, arthritic changes and more pain and dysfunction, which humans can usually successfully find a way to complain about unless they have a high tolerance to that type of pain and clearly, some do. Dogs can't tell us in words or necessarily use successful gestures so most vets observe how seriously injured or post-op or anesthetized dogs react as a leading indicator of how to evaluate pain in all lesser cases. I don't know how a veterinarian can determine a similar patellar subluxation in a canine is rarely painful using heart rate, respiration, lack of reaction to ROM or pressure or pupils or squinting or whatever other sign and symptoms he uses but even dogs with far more intensive injuries don't necessarily have any of those tell signs either according to vets I've asked.

Personally, I've been able to find little study of how canine pain is evaluated in veterinary circles and feel they under-study it in more routine orthopedic problems as they have stoic patients who rarely bug them for relief as humans do and funding is hard to find. I'm too fearful of leaving a dog in pain to accept the premise (or any veterinarian's opinion) that there is rarely pain and no inflammation when a dog is limping from a Stage IV subluxating patella that requires surgery to correct. And even accepting the premise, rarely doesn't mean all dogs don't hurt so I'd personally want to make sure my dog wasn't the exception as long as the dog was not bearing weight on the leg.

I'm not arguing with you or anyone and everyone must care for their own dog in the best way they feel comfortable - just giving more thoughts on the subject for readers to consider in how they plan to handle their dogs and question their vet about their dog's comfort when their dogs are not behaving normally and could very well be hurting from an orthopedic problem in an area which seems to be under-analyzed.