Post-operative pain, its awareness and management by veterinary practitioners: a survey report

A survey was conducted among 292 veterinarians from various districts of Karnataka during 2005 to determine their awareness about post-operative pain and its management in animals. Questionnaires consisted of seven questions related to post-operative pain in animals The respondents were classified based on their occupational status and age, and had to answer the questions as yes or no. The responses were collected and tabulated. The percentage of positive and negative responses to each question was determined. Among the respondents, though 97.29% agreed that animals suffered from pain post-operatively and 95.10% opined that animals needed post-operative analgesics, only 78.93% said that they regularly used analgesics postoperatively. Of the surveyed veterinarians, 82.29% believed that lesser the post-operative pain, lesser the stress and faster the healing and 80.78% agreed that pain increased the chance of self mutilation. However, 49.10% of the respondents thought that if animals did not have pain they would be overactive and delay the healing of surgical wounds and 40.93% felt that if animals did not have pain they would mutilate the surgical wounds and increase the post-operative complications.