Pain is something we’re all familiar with, and unfortunately so are our pets. Sometimes, though, it can be hard to tell if your pet is hurting, even if you know them well. Animals’ minds work differently from human minds, and by understanding how they think, we can help keep our friends happy and comfortable.

If your dog breaks his leg, it’s obvious he’s in pain, right? He screams when it happens, and cries when you touch it. But what he is reacting to is acute pain—that is, pain that happens suddenly. Chronic pain, which is pain that comes on slowly or lasts a long time, is different. Animals seldom react obviously to chronic pain. Partly this is because it doesn’t “startle” them—it’s always there, so why should they react to it? And it’s partly because animals don’t think like humans. A human in chronic pain might say, “I could not be in pain.” Animals cannot do that. They live in the now, and so they simply accept the pain as part of their existence and pointless to complain about. Which means animals in chronic pain usually:

• Still eat
• Don’t whine
• Try to do their normal activities