Michael Petty, DVM, CVPP, CVMA, CCRT, CAAPM

You can never become good at pain management without understanding basic pain pathways. You will have trouble understanding pain pathways without understanding the terminology used to describe them.

An "epidural" is defined as an injection into the epidural space, most commonly performed at the lumbo-sacral junction. It was originally used in animals to avoid the use of general anesthetics in aged debilitated and shocky animals back when anesthetic choices were more limited and more dangerous than the options we have today.

There are many medical conditions that can be quite painful, and are often forgotten in our pursuit to cure the disease. Common among these are eye pain, urinary cystitis, pancreatitis, renal uroliths, anal sac infection and acute moist dermatitis.

The Controlled Substance Act was initiated to stop the diversion of narcotics, especially opioids for the purpose of abuse and misuse. Opioids are the number one cause of death in drug overdoses. The Act is aimed at giving us, the practitioner, some reasonable guidelines for ordering, storing, handling and prescribing these drugs.

I had just come in from a walk when my phone rang. As any veterinarian knows, getting a call this late at night could mean only one thing: a sick animal.