8. Pain, Stress and Welfare Flashcards
When does a dog become defined as malnourished?
When it has lost 10% or more of their body weight and are suffering extreme undernourishment
What clinical signs may a malnourished dog suffer with?
- lethargy
- dehydration
- skin conditions
- organ or neurological compromise
- prominent hip and rib bones
What is pain?
A complex multi-dimensional experience involving sensory and emotional components.
An animals inability to anticipate relief from pain also contributes to that additional suffering (Robertson, 2002)
What is acute pain?
Generally associated with tissue damage or the threat of this and serves the vital purpose of rapidly altering behaviour in order to avoid damage.
What is chronic pain?
Persists beyond the expected course of an acute disease process and has an effect on physical wellbeing and psychology. Often results in fear, anxiety, anger, depression which influence the patients quality of life
How can we measure pain?
Formal scoring methodology assessing the psychological and physical wellbeing.
You cannot examine pain the same way in different species or even breeds
How is the visual analogue scale used?
Consists of a horizontal line, 0 being no pain- 100 being the worst pain imaginable. You mark along the line where the animals pain sits
How is the Glasgow Composite Pain Measure Scale used?
A clinical decision making instrument that measures acute pain in dogs (Reid et al, 2007)
Includes behaviour and interaction with the animals
How is the grimace scale used?
Pain assessment for rodents- observing whisker movement, tightening of the orbital area, flattening of the nose (Oliver et al, 2014)
How is the Canine Brief Pain inventory used?
consists of 4 questions to identify the severity of pain and the responses the dog has to it. Identifies how the pain is affecting the dogs normal behaviour
What types of stress do animals encounter?
- Physical- fatigue or injury
- Physiological stress- hunger, thirst, temperature
- Behavioural- due to the environment, unfamiliar people
What coping methods do animals have for stress?
- over grooming/licking
- feather plucking in birds
- stereotypical behaviours
- displacement behaviours
- fight or flight
How can we assess the quality of life of animals?
Assess what is important (5 needs) for the animal and working out what parameters can be assessed for use.
should be assessed from the animals and observers point of view
What are the 3 concepts framework? (Fraser, 1997)
- physical- biological states of animals are measured
- mental- emotional state of the animal
- natural- the states of the animals compared to its wild counterparts
