Surgical pain control

We would sometimes like to think that dogs and cats cannot  feel pain the way humans do. Naturally, that's nonsense. Dogs and cats may be tougher than we are and complain  less, but they have the same biological need to perceive pain, and their nervous systems are almost identical to our own. After even a  moment's thought  we must realize that they feel pain the same as humans. 

When the veterinarian's choices were morphine and aspirin, routine pain control was impractical. Aspirin isn't all that useful for post surgical pain and morphine has several undesirable side effects, so vets didn't worry much about such things. Today we have  excellent drugs, and progressive veterinarians do pay attention to such things.

New drugs and new approaches to pain control are continuingly being developed. This is currently the most dynamic area in veterinary medicine.