Nonpharmacologic options for pain control

Veterinary technician content is sponsored by Elanco for the month of October.

In a dvm360^® interview at the Fetch Coastal in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Karen Roach, RVT, VTS (ECC), shared ways to help pets manage pain outside of a traditional pharmacological approach.

The following is a partial transcript of the video.

Karen Roach, RVT, VTS (ECC): There's quite a few [nonpharmacologic options for pain control]. Treating their stress and anxiety can go a long way towards that. Because when animals are stressed and anxious and scared, it can really feed into their perception of pain and make their pain feel a lot worse.

Then some other kind of like practical hands-on things [are] proper wound care. If we have a patient with a fractured leg that can't get to surgery right away, like splinting and bandaging it to keep those bones still, that can go a long way towards pain control as well.