What can cause pain in my dog?

Many things can cause pain in dogs, such as if they have a sore paw, they cut themselves, or if another dog has bitten them. They could also have chronically changing arthritis in their hips or knees, which can cause pain. A dog’s nervous system is very similar to ours, so whatever could cause us pain can cause them pain also. And certainly, dental pain is a huge one. We see many animals living with pretty severe pain in their mouths, and they will not tell you when they have a sore tooth. That’s upon us to help you figure that out.

There's a whole slew of things. Maybe they stepped funny in the yard, and their paw hurts, or perhaps they got a little cut by a brush or a fence. Perhaps you have another dog at home, and they got in a tussle, and that could cause some pain. Maybe they ate something they shouldn't have, and their stomach hurts, and they have general abdominal pain. There's a whole lot under the sun that can sometimes make dogs uncomfortable.

That's a hard question to answer because almost anything can cause pain; let's be honest. It could be a sprain, arthritis, trauma, intestinal obstruction, you name it. So many of the things that we see daily cause some sort of pain in general. One of the most common ones we see is a dog that’s overweight or even obese—how does that cause pain? Because now you have a dog that's walking around on their hip joints, and he's supposed to weigh 40 pounds, and there is supposed to be 40 pounds of pressure on his hips. Well, now there's 65 pounds of pressure on the dog’s hips and everyday activities—running, jumping, those kinds of things, are causing a lot more stress on the joints. So that can cause pain, particularly in older dogs that already have arthritis and are overweight. It exacerbates the signs that much more and makes them much more evident.

Many things can cause pain, anything from an injury, like a bee sting, to something like a knee injury, like a torn cruciate ligament, to arthritis. I would say arthritis is one of the biggest types of pain that we manage. That would probably fall under the chronic pain category. Dogs tend to adapt to it, and it's not until it's advanced that owners recognize it many times.