Clinical indicators of occult musculoskeletal pain in aggressive dogs

<p>AGGRESSIVE behaviour by dogs is the most frequent behaviourproblem reported to veterinary behaviour clinics (Bamberger andHoupt 2006, Fatjo and others 2007). The behaviour is a seriousproblem for the victims (Weiss and others 1998) and for theanimals themselves, since it often reflects a negative underlyingemotional state, especially if associated with pain (Bambergerand Houpt 2006, Hsu and Sun 2010). Pain may lower the dog’sgeneral threshold for aggressive behaviour, while also encouragingspecific aggressive displays as part of a protective/defensiveresponse (Rutherford 2002, Muir and others 2004, Landsbergand others 2013). Beaver (1983) has suggested that more than aquarter (28.2 per cent) of dogs exhibiting aggression do sobecause of a medical condition, including pain, but pain-relatedaggression has been considered to account for only a small percent of the total caseload in behaviour clinics, that is, 2–3.3 percent (Beaver 1983, Borchelt 1983). However, when pain is identi-fied, the data from Beaver (1983) suggest the prognosis is excellent,with all cases in her case review reported to have asuccessful treatment outcome. A recent small case series ofaggressive dogs with a pain focus indicated that musculoskeletalpain from hip dysplasia and osteoarthritis of the elbow was themain cause of pain, occurring in 75 per cent (nine of 12 cases) ofthese cases (Camps and others 2012).</p>