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Clinical indicators of occult musculoskeletal pain in aggressive dogs
Author(s) -
Barcelos AM.,
Mills D. S.,
Zulch H.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
veterinary record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.261
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 2042-7670
pISSN - 0042-4900
DOI - 10.1136/vr.102823
Subject(s) - animal welfare , welfare , veterinary medicine , psychology , cognition , medicine , political science , biology , law , psychiatry , ecology
AGGRESSIVE behaviour by dogs is the most frequent behaviour\udproblem reported to veterinary behaviour clinics (Bamberger and\udHoupt 2006, Fatjo and others 2007). The behaviour is a serious\udproblem for the victims (Weiss and others 1998) and for the\udanimals themselves, since it often reflects a negative underlying\udemotional state, especially if associated with pain (Bamberger\udand Houpt 2006, Hsu and Sun 2010). Pain may lower the dog’s\udgeneral threshold for aggressive behaviour, while also encouraging\udspecific aggressive displays as part of a protective/defensive\udresponse (Rutherford 2002, Muir and others 2004, Landsberg\udand others 2013). Beaver (1983) has suggested that more than a\udquarter (28.2 per cent) of dogs exhibiting aggression do so\udbecause of a medical condition, including pain, but pain-related\udaggression has been considered to account for only a small per\udcent of the total caseload in behaviour clinics, that is, 2–3.3 per\udcent (Beaver 1983, Borchelt 1983). However, when pain is identi-\udfied, the data from Beaver (1983) suggest the prognosis is excellent,\udwith all cases in her case review reported to have a\udsuccessful treatment outcome. A recent small case series of\udaggressive dogs with a pain focus indicated that musculoskeletal\udpain from hip dysplasia and osteoarthritis of the elbow was the\udmain cause of pain, occurring in 75 per cent (nine of 12 cases) of\udthese cases (Camps and others 2012)