All About The Pain In Cats

Feline animals like cats never fail to give us that"aw, so cute!" reaction whenever we see one looking at us with their big hypnotic eyes. Cats, particularly, have been found as lovable and affectionate animals from their group that's why a lot of people take care of them and include them part of their family. It is therefore not surprising to know that in special instances, cats suffer from minor and major injuries affecting joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments once they got themselves involved in a bad fall from a high surface, a serious bumped from a car and other accidents that physically ruptures internal parts of their bodies resulting to sudden pain or persistent pain.

Pain is such an unpleasant sensation that not just humans experience. Pain is observed when there has been damage or rupture to the muscle, bones, ligaments and the like in which the nerve-endings of these tissues are damaged sending unpleasant signals to the brain. These nerve endings may also be called pain receptors as they report signals to the brain that something is painful and thus, a movement away from it should be done. In this case, pain becomes a protective mechanism.

In animals especially cats, manifestations of pain is vital to be observed so there's an immediate treatment that may be acted upon. Manifestations of these cat pains include an alteration of behavior or when your cat suddenly exhibits characteristics that are normally exhibited by them. For instance, when they become quieter than normal, avoidance to people and other animals or hiding, exhibiting aggressive behavior, fear biting, mental dullness, depression, disorientation, agitation, pacing and restlessness; lameness, laziness or reluctance to move around, wobbliness, abnormal carriage, and stiffness. Vocalization, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, increase heart rate, as well as shocking and collapsing are all included in the possible manifestations of pain experienced by your cat.

These manifestations may be coming from the pain felt on major body organs of the cats such as: bones, joints and ligaments, muscles, skin and soft tissues of the skin, tissues of the mouth, portions of the brain and spinal cord, tissues within and those around the eyes, certain components of the ears and the ear canal, some structures of the chest, areas in the abdominal regions, tissues near the anus and their tail, and in some cases, in their external genitalia. Pain felt in these organs may be brought about by trauma, exposures to heat and extreme cold, inflammation in the tissues, necrosis of tissues or death of tissues, loss of blood supply to the tissue, stretching of tissues, as well as spasms of tissue.

These pains may be categorized into two types namely, acute pain and chronic pain. Acute pain is a kind of pain that is sudden and may be short as it is caused by injuries that can be healed. After healing, the pain may go away as in wounds, and other minor injuries. However, chronic pain is the one that persists in a longer period of time. They persist because the damage in the part where tissue is broken may be continually transpiring. It may also be a result of a degenerative kind of condition such as arthritis. Osteoarthritis is a severe condition that has to be managed and controlled.