In observance of Animal Pain Awareness Month, PetMeds® is helping pet parents learn about recognizing and managing pain in pets and giving away 8 pain prevention prize packs through the month of September.
September is Animal Pain Awareness Month, first started by the American Chronic Pain Association in 2001 to help pet parents learn about pain awareness and management for cats and dogs.
Even the most caring and attentive pet parents can miss signs that their cat or dog is feeling unwell. Untreated pain can not only impede the animal’s quality of life, but also increase stress, prevent exercise, and even delay healing. Pet parents should be aware of different types of pain and the most commonly overlooked symptoms.
Acute pain describes short-term pain that’s brought on quickly, usually from a bone break, a sprain, a muscle injury, or an infection. It’s often easy to recognize when it manifests as obvious symptoms like limping or whining, but may appear as changes in behavior like growling, snapping, or avoiding affection.
Chronic pain is long-term, lasting at least three months, and it’s usually associated with conditions like arthritis, hip or elbow dysplasia, cancer, and dental disease. Symptoms of chronic pain may be more likely to go unnoticed as they can appear gradually.
Symptoms like slowing down, sleeping more, and refusing to eat are often misconstrued as normal signs of aging. Many times, pets act like their younger selves after starting chronic pain treatment.
Chronic and acute pain may be mild or severe. Depending on where it occurs in the body, it may be somatic, visceral, or neuropathic. Somatic pain affects the limbs and skin, for example, a cut or sprain. Visceral pain affects internal organs. Neuropathic pain from nerve or spinal cord injuries tends to cause tingling, burning, or shooting pain.
Pet parents who suspect their pet may be in pain should talk to their veterinarian about treatment options, which range from medication, supplements, physical therapy and surgeries to acupuncture, electromagnetic therapy, hydrotherapy and massage.
PetMeds® is honoring Animal Pain Awareness Month by giving away Pain Prevention Prize Packs which will include T-Relief Tablets, Super Joint Enhancer Liquid, Cosequin for Dogs or Cats, and our new Prana Pets Joint & Muscle Supplement for Pain and Mobility Issues. All dog and cat parents are invited to enter for a chance to win by leaving a comment below.
The giveaway runs from September 1, 2022, through September 30, 2022. Everyone who enters from 12:01 AM Eastern Time (“ET”) September 1, 2022, to September 30, 2022, at 11:59 PM ET is eligible to win.
How can you tell when your pet is in pain? Let us know below, and you could win a FREE Pain Prevention Prize Package from PetMeds®! Two winners will be chosen at random Every Monday in September , so everyone who participates has a chance to win! There will be a total of four (8) winners. (Limited to residents of the U.S.) Good luck!
Congrats to our Week 1 Winners Gail Hurt in Kentucky, and Heung Ng in Ohio, Week 2 Winners Allison Winser in Pennsylvania and Millie Penna in Pennsylvania, Week 3 Jim Hayes in Maryland and Kristian Cade in North Carolina, and Week 4 Kandy Thome in Pennsylvania and Dennis J McCarthy in Pennsylvania. Look out for an email from us!