Pain Clinics
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Why have specialist pain clinics?
This is a bespoke service to help manage chronic pain in companion animals. We know that everyone is different in the way they perceive and cope with pain. This ultimately impacts on our enjoyment of life. The longer pain is left unmanaged, the worse if can become and this can significantly impact on an animal.
Pain can come from a lot of sources, and treatments for these different types of pain are many and variable. Maladaptive pain can occur when a patient experiences pain over a period of time and can lead to patients experiencing painful feelings to normal stimulus.
Successful pain management involves understanding the different pain pathways in the body, how they interact and developing a strategy to help combat this. It is very important for you to understand your role in combating chronic pain in your pets and not underestimate the complexity of the problem we are aiming to treat.
What will happen?
The aim is to determine the sources and types of pain that patients are experiencing but also the emotional impact this pain is having on their welfare. Remember that humans can be taught to understand their chronic pain and not to be afraid of it. Animals have no such capacity.
Careful examination of the pet and a questionnaire will help us build a better understanding of this. We will put together an individual plan to manage your animal's pain and by doing this, give them a better overall quality of life.
A multimodal approach to pain management means we will use a variety of different techniques to try and achieve the best possible outcome for your pet, this approach should also help minimise any undesirable side effects.
We may look at several different areas of the animal's life: medications, response to acupuncture, laser therapy, weight management, home adaptations, lifestyle changes, environmental changes, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy etc to achieve this.
Who would benefit from this service?
Patients with poorly controlled chronic pain – eg some arthritis sufferers
Patients who have undergone orthopaedic or neuro surgery
Individuals where a pain component is suspected but as yet undiagnosed
Individuals who cannot tolerate conventional medication may benefit from this service too.