To some extent, veterinary practitioners can anticipate the level of pain associated with a particular surgery. Abdominal surgery generally produces more pain than superficial soft-tissue procedures while orthopedic procedures can cause severe and prolonged pain for your feline patients. It should be noted, however, that even the most routine of surgical procedures are painful to cats.¹ For this reason, pain management is becoming an increasingly important part of feline surgical protocols.

Common feline surgical procedures in which pain management treatment is often administered include:

• Ovariohysterectomy
• Castration
• Orthopedic surgery, in particular:
  • Fracture repair
  • Femoral head ostectomy
  • Triple pelvic osteotomy
  • Hip replacement