THE TAIL END | NOISE SENSITIVTY
Could noise sensitivity in dogs be a cry for pain relief?
Researchers believe that undiagnosed pain could be exacerbated when noise makes a painful dog tense or jump
The Fourth of July holiday is just around the corner for those of us in the United States, and with it comes a few weeks of dogs being terrified by fireworks. But according to a study conducted by animal behavior scientists from the United Kingdom and Brazil, some of those dogs reacting to the fireworks may also be suffering from undiagnosed musculoskeletal pain.
The researchers— Ana Luisa Lopes Fagundes, of Centro Universitário de Belo Horizonte, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Lynn Hewison, Kevin J. McPeake, Helen Zulch and Daniel Simon Mills, all from Animal Behaviour Clinic, School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom— examined cases of dogs that had developed sensitivity to variations in noise volume, pitch, and occurrence, and found some were actually in pain. The auditory stimuli, which made the dogs tense or stressed, placed extra stress on muscles or joints that were already inflamed, causing more pain, according to the study. The findings have been published in Frontiers In Veterinary Science.
If a dog tensing up from the sound of fireworks or jumping after a loud and startling noise experiences more pain, then the dog is likely to associate that sound with pain and develop a sensitivity to noise and avoidance of situations where they had the previous bad experience, such as in a car, local park or even a room in a house.
According to the researchers, veterinarians should determine if pain is a factor for a dog’ s reaction or sensitivity to noise. In the study, all dogs that experienced pain and were treated showed improvement in behavior.
“ Although the average ages of the dogs were similar, the average age of onset of the problem was nearly four years later in the clinical cases,” said co-author Mills, BVSc, Ph. D.“ This strong theme of an older age of onset suggests that the pain may develop later in life and that owners seek treatment more readily, perhaps because the appearance of the problem is out of character in the subject.
“ These results are consistent with the suggestion that whenever there is a late age onset to a behavior problem, medical issues including those related to pain, should be carefully evaluated. It is worth owners being aware that once pain is successfully managed, the previously learned associations with noise may persist and require their own targeted behavior modification program.”
Researchers assessed two groups of dogs that presented with noise sensitivity: those that had already been diagnosed with underlying musculoskeletal pain and those that hadn’ t.
In both cases, the presenting signs of the dogs’ behavioral issue included shaking, trembling, and hiding, but those with a diagnosed pain issue also showed a higher level of avoidance when it came to places where they had a previous bad experience with noise.
The dogs with musculoskeletal pain also started to show signs of fear of noises much later in life than the control cases and were on average four years older than their pain-free counterparts. Noise triggers ranged from fireworks, thunderstorms, and airplanes, to gunshots, cars, and motorbikes.
Veterinary student Lopes Fagundes led the research at Lincoln as part of Brazil’ s Science Without Borders.
“ The aim of the study was to explore the presenting signs of dogs with generalized noise sensitivity with and without pain in their muscles or joints,” she said.“ We think that dogs with this sort of chronic pain may experience the noise quite differently, because if the noise makes them startle it may cause them to tense their muscles, and as consequence, they feel pain associated with the noise.
We found that these dogs which had pain do indeed show different signs; in particular they seem to form much wider associations with the noise. For example, they would often tend to avoid not just the place where they had the bad experience but much larger areas, too. These dogs also tended to avoid other dogs as well. The findings of this study are really important because they contribute to the dog`s welfare and improved behavior as pain could be identified and subsequently treated.”
— reprinted from Veterinary Practice News
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