Limping or lameness<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSigns you might miss<\/h3>\n
Still, other behavioral signs of pain in pets might be misinterpreted. For example, you might assume that a cat who urinates outside the litter box has a urinary tract infection. But the cat could have arthritis, and it\u2019s just too painful to climb over the top of the litter box. Similarly, a dog can have accidents in the house if their hips are too arthritic to climb up the stairs to go outside.<\/p>\n
You may think that a cat that coughs up hairballs has a digestive problem. But the real cause of the hairballs could be that the cat is obsessively grooming an area that\u2019s painful. If your older cat stops grooming, you might chalk it up to old age when, in reality, your cat has spinal pain that prevents him or her from bending and reaching those areas.<\/p>\n
And that purring? It doesn\u2019t always signal happiness. Cats may purr when they\u2019re in pain or fearful, as well.<\/p>\n
Be a careful observer<\/h3>\n
The best way to know if your pet could be in pain is to watch for changes in your pet\u2019s behavior. Does your pet refuse dry food and hold out for canned? Dental pain from broken teeth, abscesses or gum disease could be behind the behavior. Has your cat stopped jumping up to favorite perches? The issue could be musculoskeletal pain. Does your dog avoid being touched on the face? He or she could have a painful ear infection.<\/p>\n
If you suspect that something\u2019s up, schedule an appointment with your veterinarian. A video of your pet\u2019s unusual behavior can be helpful. Never try to medicate your pet with human pain medications because many are toxic to pets. Rely on your veterinarian to give your pet a thorough exam and advise you on the safest ways to help keep your pet as pain-free as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our pets have an uncanny way of sensing when something\u2019s wrong with us. Whether we\u2019re under the weather or just feeling blue, they\u2019ll find a way to snuggle next to us until we\u2019re better. But can we say the same for ourselves as pet parents? Do we intuitively know when something\u2019s amiss with our dogs … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":3751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Tell Me Where It Hurts: Signs of Pain in Pets | Taste of the Wild Pet Food","_seopress_titles_desc":"Our pets have an uncanny way of sensing when something\u2019s wrong with us. Whether we\u2019re under the weather or just feeling blue, they\u2019ll find a way to snuggle next to us until we\u2019re better. Can we sense the same about them? Learn more about how pets show pain here.","_seopress_robots_index":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[60,132,59],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3746"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18354,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746\/revisions\/18354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}