Do I need to bring my dog to the vet to get the pain medication?

Absolutely. Just getting a good head-to-tail exam on these guys makes all the difference in the world to identify where the pain is at and how painful that pet is, and it's also essential because we can look for progression. Are we getting worse? Are we improving on the pain medication? Do we need more? Do we need less? We can store all of that information with regular visits by keeping tabs on all those things for you.

You generally do. Many dogs will require different types of pain medication, be on different dosages or for additional periods, so making sure you bring your dog in to establish the best pain medication and management route for your dog would be great.

Initially, for every acute pain episode, absolutely. That animal should be assessed. For chronic pain, sometimes animals that we're diagnosed with arthritis chronic pain, for example, are on something daily. So we will refill based on their mandatory one to two exams a year and their blood work once to twice a year. So in the cases that we've got them on a maintenance plan, and it's a management plan, they can just have it dispensed at times, but if there are any changes in the animal's behavior or we haven't seen them for over a year, we need to see that patient.