Sassy- A Perfect Dog In An Imperfect World

[sandgrubber]

I always wonder about that statement 'not in any pain'? How do they know? Friends of mine had an horrific incident after the Ash Wednesday fires. Couldn't find one of their little dogs when they had to get out in a hurry. 2 days later they were back at their property, lost their house. While looking around their little dog came out of the rubble wagging his tail. Poor little fellow was burnt all over his body but he was still happy to see them, wagging his tail despite the agony he must have been in.

Friends still get so upset when they think of him. They had to get the police to shoot him as when they tried to touch him, he screamed.

I've had a few dogs with fairly bad injuries and know there's pain involved but they don't show it like we would.

So how does anyone know if a dog is in pain?

One way . .. .

if you give the dog an anti-inflammatory or other painkiller and it becomes much more lively or acts happier, you know it's in pain.

[pebbles]

There's lots of things that a pill wont/cant help. Personal experience - lovely Gordon Setter, 7 years old, never a sick day in her life, started getting lethargic, lying around a lot, eating well, output normal, coat good. Vet trip just to check up. All outward signs fine. Blood tests done. Result, red count down a little. More tests done 4 days later, red count down more. Tested again in 4 days, red count down again. After lot of discussion, an exploritory op done. My girl was riddled with cancer so I had to let her go. Don't tell me she didn't have pain in those weeks while the testing etc was done but apart from slowing down a lot there wasn't any signs. Thankfully I had a Vet who listened to me and knew I knew my dog wasn't right or it could have gone on a lot longer.

So I still question "the not in pain" statements.

[tdierikx]

Dogs are extremely stoic... we'd have no idea if they were in any pain most of the time, as they just get on with it...

T.