Chronic Muscular Pain
What is the difference between Acute and Chronic pain? Acute pain from a dog will result in a sudden vocalisation, such as a yelp, resulting is something that is easy to visualise such as a limp. This pain is short term and is reflexive and something that is adaptive. Chronic pain is a continuous pain that more often than not will worsen with time and will become slowly debiltating causing the dog to slow down, sleep more, sleep in a positions that would would consider awkward. On the whole the tell tales signs are intermittent. If pain is chronic this will generally lead to compensatory issues.
So what does chronic pain look like:
Physical Signs:
Difficulty getting up after rest
Stiffness
On going or intermittent lameness
Excessive licking or nibbling of the body
Changes in coat condition or pattern
Muscle spasms
Postural changes
Difficulty getting comfortable
Difficulty going to the toilet
Reduced activity levels or activity avoidance
Groaning when lying down or getting up again
Propping their neck up
Hanging neck over the arm of a chair or soft cushion
It is therefore obvious that if a dog is in pain there are bound to be behaviour indicators, these being:
Low mood/depression
Lethargy
Reluctant to play
Sleeping more than usual
Changes in willingness to interact
Seeming disinterested or distant
Changes in temperament
Snappy behaviour
Increased anxiety
It is worth bearing in mind that chronic muscular pain can manifest in subtle signs and often playtime or excitement will take over logical reasoning!!
Compensatory Issues
The term compensatory issues is found throughout this website but what is meant by this term? With many conditions, injuries and chronic muscular pain the discomfort felt leads to adaptive changes within the dog's posture and the way the dog walks. The altered walking pattern then results in the muscles and surrounding soft tissues becoming overworked because they are being used in a way that they should not be worked. Over time these compensatory issues can lead to secondary pain and can become worse than the original pain source.
A simple scenario to demonstrate would be a dog with osteoarthritis to the hip. The dog would shift the weight to the front legs and also over the neck region. The reason for this is the dog then uses the neck and head for forward movement and balance because using all the power from behind causes pain. The dog's tail will also start to help with balance and help with forward motion - eventually the tail will stop wagging due to pain and tension. As a result of the weight shift there will be compensatory issues in the neck, front legs as well as the back leg that does not have arthritis and the tail. The primary issue is now not causing all the pain it is the compensatory and adaptive changes that is making every day tasks such as walking, playing and jumping painful.