Your thoughts on pain meds?

My 6 month old siberian husky was spayed a few days ago. We have been giving her the prescribed pain pills (tramadol 50mg) every 8-12 hours as the vet recommended. Other than her initial grogginess after sugery, she has shown no signs of pain or discomfort. We didn't give her a pill last night, and this morning she was her usual self, energized and happy.

So my question...I am very weary of pain meds myself and will usually try to avoid them unless absolutely necessary. I don't want to give them to her if she doesn't need them...but I would feel terrible if she were in pain and couldn't tell me.

Would you just play it safe and give them to her until they run out? Or wait until she shows signs of pain? What are some signs of pain that I might have to look for? All I can think of really are limping or whining.

She seems to be completely fine today, we actually have to restrain her from running and jumping so that she doesn't hurt her insides.

Thanks for any advice or opinions!

Years ago horse vets always used to say if they can feel the damage, they will rest the part. Pain is there for a purpose, it warns us, and them, not to do too much until healing has taken place.
Of course, if an animal is in distress after an op or injury, it needs pain relief; as does an animal suffering with incurable disease, but I do not give pain medication unless the animal gives the signals that it is needed.

I agree with you. I never take it, even if I have some kind of pain, I still never take it. Ever. I hate pain medication for so many reasons

1. It often has awful side effects
2. It masks the pain, doesn't help heal it
3. It does not always work!!

Recently, my Nigredo wrenched a leg badly and was barely putting any weight on it. I gave him a very HUGE and very strong pain pill given to me by doctors. Guess what? He thought he was fine and started running and jumping and QUICKLY re-injured the leg.

When the medication wore off, the awful limp came back. The only thing that helped was locking him down so he had no space to run, jump, or jet up and down the stairs and stress the joint. This helped heal the leg.

My oldie is different, her pain is not due to injury... but rather arthritis. I ONLY give her any meds if she's in true obvious pain. Like limping pain, and it still does not always work. A massage works if she's in the mood to accept one.

If she's just a bit stiff, I let her rest as much as she likes, and take her on a grassy, gentle walk, but I don't go popping her pills left and right. I also avoid flea medications, most vaccinations, and other forms of medicine for old dogs unless they absolutely need it.

I had a GSD some years ago who had terrible arthritis to the point where she could not walk at all. The vet told me to go to the drug store and buy a bottle of Ecotrin and to give her 2 pills when it was very bad and to not give her anything on good days. He was of the opinion that Ecotrin should have been a dog medicine and not a human medicine. He also said that there must be some kind of filler in it that made it ideal for dogs because there are many other meds that have the same ingredients that don't work as well. After one dose she was up within 45 minutes. By the second dose she would be her old self running and begging to play ball. Also I've found that most dogs are self limiting. If something hurts they don't move it. If it's a tummy ache most will eat grass and then lay still till they throw up.

I would give her the prescribed pain medication . If I had a hysterectomy I'm pretty sure I would be needing pain medication .

My two were not given or advised any pain meds when they were spayed and were fine.

I was given pain meds for collie who gets the occasional bad bout of arthritis but stopped them as soon as possible, watched and when she was clearly over it put them away.

As others have said, dogs are sensible re pain and if pain is masked then more damage can be done.

Collie actually eats nettles every day; she was left to fend for herself for years and knew they will help.

Just googled Ecotrin; a form of aspirin which many advise for dogs at the dose we call baby aspirin.
Cannot get that in Ireland without a prescription so I do in need use 1/4 aspirin for collie.. have to get even these in from abroad.


See
http://www.vetinfo.com/how-safe-are-...or-dogs.html#b

Basic ingredient of ecotrin is aspirin but it has an enteric coating.

Actually, like RoseBud said, none of my spays were given any pain medication and they were fine. They kinda... don't need it. I had a major surgery (left an 8 inch scar) and frankly the pain from it was not so bad!

My dog was prescribed ~Rimadyl after her spey and I too, hate giving pain meds, but on that occasion I stuck with what they had prescribed, whereby it reduced after a couple of days, and then I think I just stopped them.

What you have to remember is, she would have been given an intravenous painkiller during the op, and whether that was one which lasted 24, 48, 72 hours you just don't know do you.

Under the circumstances, of a major op like this, I think I'd want to speak to the surgery and get their advice as to whether it would be ok to stop them because she seems "fine" to you.

Like the others have said, if something hurts, at least it would stop her running around, which you don't want, and if you're masking pain, then they don't know anything's wrong do they?

Maybe ask the surgery if she would have had some kind of pain relief which could already be masking the pain now. Painkillers have a long lasting effect once in the system, so you could have been prescribed these to keep it IN her system along with whatever they gave her. If you stop it suddenly, the system clears of it, and she could end up in pain and it might take a while to introduce it again. It's a tough one, so good luck.

Every dog I have had spayed was given pain medication . The OP's dog was given pain medication so obviously that's what the vet wants her to have .
I wouldn't be too happy with a vet who didn't give pain medication for a major operation .