Dogs may be incredibly domesticated animals that through tens of thousands of years of domestication and evolution, have become a lot more like us…but they are still at their core animals that retain many animal instincts. One of those instincts that commonly fool human dog parents, is their animalistic tendency to hide pain and/or illness.
Consider what animals in general risk if they show signs of pain and weakness. Life in the wild is not kind, rife with competition, pecking order, bullying and opportunistic predators. Competition and pecking order are derived from many animals vying for a finite availability of food and resources.
I look no further than my own back yard that is teaming with different species of ducks, watching them all constantly fighting with one another for dibs on my bird feeder. Usually, it is the biggest and strongest ducks that get that top spot while the smaller/weaker ducks are left out, survival of the fittest on full display.
Although dogs are far more highly evolved than ducks, they too operate with a pecking order of sorts when in group settings. While their interaction is more complex than that of the ducks in my backyard, you can clearly see who emerges as top dog when in dog park or dog daycare settings.
My dogs regularly go to daycare in a facility called Dogtopia. They have a webcam where I can tune in and watch my dogs playing and interacting with a sizable group of dogs. Since all of the daycare dogs are thoroughly vetted for dog aggression prior to being allowed full membership, fights rarely occur. Nonetheless, you can see the competition for the most coveted spots in the room, namely the raised platforms where the most assertive dogs end up claiming (the elevated platforms are the most popular spots).
Thus, dogs have the same programming when it comes to internalizing pain or illness so as not to invite being bullied away from resources. This presents a problem for their human caretakers because of the difficulty presented to the people that need to notice signs of pain or illness to get them to the vet.
I used the limping dog and the terrible dental disease as examples, because these are common injury/disease presentations that owners do not grasp the pain involved. Let’s start with the limping dog.
In this case, the dog is so sore that he is shifting weight off the leg even when he is just standing. I ultimately diagnosed a CCL tear of the knee, CCL being the major stabilizing ligament of the canine knee (equivalent to the ACL in people). I recommended surgical stabilization.
As commonly occurs, the owner stated that Bruno did not seem to be in any pain. As always, I let the owner know that his is not limping to be a drama queen, he is limping because he is in pain and can no longer hide it.
Regarding the teeth, the mouth pictured above is a train wreck of dental disease. I told the owner that there are likely multiple resorptive lesions (pockets of infection and bone loss around tooth root tips) which are not only unhealthy for the patient, but cause severe chronic pain. The owner reacted with surprise because Chelsea is eating fine and does not seem like she is in pain. I answered that I will guarantee that Chelsea is suffering silently.
I relayed to the owner that I suffered just one resorptive lesion on one of my incisors that left me in considerable pain, feeling like someone was stabbing me with a knife up the roof of my mouth and up into my eyeball. You know things are bad when I am on the phone Monday morning begging for an endodontist to give me a root canal. I could not imagine what a whole mouthful of that would feel like.
This particular dog ended up having 10 resorptive lesions. We do not routinely do root canals in dogs, most commonly just extracting the diseased teeth. 2 weeks later when the owner brought Chelsea back for re-check, he relayed to me how astounded he was at the change in Chelsea’s peppiness and overall demeanor. Prior to the dental, she had slowed down, slept more, and the owner just chalked that up to age. In hindsight, seeing Chelsea’s incredible turn around, her owner realized that she is aging just fine…she was just suffering silently with bad teeth.
So, if your dog is limping, bring him to the vet. If your dog is off his appetite, not himself, bring him to the vet. He likely is feeling way worse than he is showing you. Lastly, engage in regular annual wellness care where we commonly find problems – like dental disease among other things – that your dog is not showing you. Although he may not let you see, many of these treatable ailments are a hindrance to optimal quality of life and may even shorten lives.
Dr. Roger Welton is a practicing veterinarian and highly regarded media personality through a number of topics and platforms. He is the author of his top selling memoir The Man In The White Coat: A Veterinarian’s Tail Of Love. In addition to this writing this blog, Dr. Welton also hosts the popular Space Coast Pet Podcast. He is the CEO and chief attending veterinarian of Premier Veterinary Care in Viera, FL.