Essential oils and other plant extracts that animals select for pain and discomfort don't just relieve pain, they support repair.

In a loving home or center when nurturing is usually present, an animal’s primary interest is to feel physically strong and healthy. This has the effect of feeling safe, secure and confident.

As an old survival instinct, animals are designed to cover up pain. In the wild, ‘weakness’ is detected by predators and could get one cast out of a pack. Through evolution, this has been hardwired into animal genes including our domestic and equine companions, mapped into their DNA to keep them healthy in order to hunt, keep up with the pack and procreate.

It is not uncommon for us to miss or misunderstand clues when our animals are trying to tell us something is wrong.

What is seen as “behavior problems” are more often than not (85-90%), an expression of a physical manifestation. With no voice or reassurance, the only way an animal can communicate that something is wrong is for their behavior to change. Animals use distraction like people, things that produce pain-relieving endorphins. Illness or weakness can be made worse by the inability to look after themselves. Anxiety, fear reactivity, lack of confidence, irritability, separation anxiety, excessive barking, hiding and withdrawal can surface. Emotional trauma, loss and separation can also cause these behaviors. They can suffer in silence trying to communicate, but we may not know what to look for. Animals have feelings, and by nature, carry ours.

Many displacement-type behaviors have been found to be related to a physical manifestation, though trauma, separation and loss can be seen as physical signs and symptoms with emotional roots for which psychotherapeutic oils are often selected.

Common areas for discomfort for animals are GI, kidney/bladder, musculoskeletal pain, nerve pain, reproductive pain and tooth pain or complications. Loud music. It is not uncommon for animals to get headaches. Anxiety in animals can lead to stomach ulcers, IBD, colic, etc., and those can likewise cause anxiety and worry. Stress compounds, as for people. Kidney/bladder issues can manifest as fear, fear reactivity or separation anxiety. Pain can show up in diverse behaviors.

GI Discomfort

  • Common across species

  • Disliking traveling in the car

  • Skin, ear infections

  • Food other than species-specific can cause GI discomfort, skin, ear, liver and kidney toxicity

  • Excessive worry

  • Eating grass

  • Digging for dirt (signs an animal may be seeking beneficial soil-dwelling bacteria) or clay

  • Eating rocks or socks

Teeth & Gums

  • Not always obvious but can cause significant pain

  • Oral care can sometimes be forgotten. In the case your pets teeth haven’t been checked recently, it is a common area that when affected or infected, can cause significant pain. Starting early can prevent scary experiences, anesthesia and cost of dental work.

  • Abscesses

  • Decayed teeth

  • Infected gums

  • When a horse abnormally rears, if wearing a bit, it could be a sign of a tooth problem (also see kidney or back pain)

  • Dr. Peter Dobias, an integrative veterinarian, advocates for feeding raw bones to dogs as the most effective method for maintaining dental health and preventing expensive dental fractures

    https://peterdobias.com/blogs/blog/best-raw-bones-for-dogs-teeth.

Kidney/Bladder

  • Noise Sensitivity. Noise sensitivity is often connected to kidney/bladder imbalance or discomfort. If an animal is noise sensitive, has an abnormally hard time with things like fireworks, it can be related to complications from spay/neuter which are common (bladder adhesions, hormonal imbalance, cystitis, UTI) or imbalance in the kidney/bladder organs.

  • Spay/neuter is often a cause of long-term complications (bladder adhesions, hormonal fluctuation, UTI, cystitis, chronic pain).

  • Separation anxiety. Long incision (vs. keyhole or arthroscopic) spay surgery is often a cause of high anxiety and fearful-type behavior.

  • Nibbling on genital area

  • When a dog only urinates in their own surrounding, it is usually because other animals can detect state of health in their urine. Not wanting to announce this, the only safe place is close home.

  • When a cat doesn’t urinate in their litter box, urinates frequently or infrequently.

  • A horse has pungent or cloudy urine

  • A horse abnormally bucks

  • Excessive or decreased thirst (could be related to endocrine or kidney/bladder)

Musculoskeletal/Nerve

  • For dogs, excessive chewing on sticks or other objects

  • Tail docking is amputation of the spine and can cause life-long nerve pain (along spinal cord), anxiety and fearful behavior. Nerve pain can travel up the spine.

  • Spay and neuter surgery puts animals on their back which can cause pain in their delicate back bones.

  • A horse abnormally bucks

  • Animals often get TMJ which can cause pain and anxiety

  • Degenerative joint disease and osteoarthritis are common undiagnosed conditions in animals

  • Dog collars can restrict airflow causing esophageal compromise, especially for those who tend to pull.

Vaccine toxicity

  • Vaccine toxicity can affect all systems. Seizures, skin and ear problems, and others could be a source of discomfort. Vaccines have historically caused adverse reactions, physical and emotional, some extreme, and masked as other conditions that can cause discomfort, such as painful itching.

Reproductive

  • It is common for spayed females to have cramps, which can sometimes be overlooked.

Elderly Animals

  • “Clients often attribute a decrease in activity due to aging. Pain is not a normal part of aging and can be treated.” – Dr. Michele Drake

Noise

  • Animals are sensitive to many things including our feelings, smells & sounds.

  • Veterinary neurologist Susan O. Wagner explains that noise toxicity in animals extends beyond hearing damage to include physiological stress responses. Dogs exposed to sound of 85 dB experience increased heart rates, elevated cortisol levels and visible signs of anxiety. Animals have a more sensitive hearing range than humans (dogs hear up to 45,000–65,000 Hz, humans' 20,000 Hz), and sounds that seem moderate to people can be overwhelmingly loud & stressful for pets.

  • Joshua Leeds has devoted himself to studying the way sound affects animals. Leeds said his animal bioacoustic work, originally called “Through a Dog’s Ear,” is based in part on a study done by Irish researcher Deborah Wells. Through her research she discovered that classical music was the most calming music for animals, and that animals can differentiate between types of music. https://icalmpet.com/

Other signs an animal may be in pain or discomfort:

  • Fear reactivity, uneasy with other animals or people (can also be related to past trauma)

  • Unable to settle

  • Over grooming

  • Over sniffing

  • New sleep patterns or positions

  • Pushing against a wall, stall or furniture (trying to relieve pressure)

    • Cramps, headaches

  • Eating changes

  • Subtle change in mobility, slowness to get up

  • Decrease in normal activity

  • Posture and body tension

  • Noise sensitivity

  • Accidents in the house, in house trained pets

  • Disliking the car

  • Personality shifts

  • Straining to urinate or defecate

  • Reluctant to be stroked or picked up

  • Crying, howling

  • Hiding

  • Decreased desire to jump up on usual jumped-on places

  • Avoiding the litter box

  • Decrease in grooming habits

  • Swiping out

Therapeutics

See 'Explore' > 'Healing Lounge'

  • Pain & Discomfort

  • Therapeutics

photo of brown horse
photo of brown horse
a black and white dog laying on the ground
a black and white dog laying on the ground

Pain & Discomfort