Abstract
Chronic pain is defined as pain that has persisted more than 3 months. In small animal practice most frequently presented patient with chronic pain suffer from cancer pain or pain associated with osteoarthritis.
Opioids has been established as the gold standard in the therapy of cancer pain. In order to decrease their dose and/or improve their effect, they are usually combined with nonsteroid antiinflammatory drugs, alpha2-agonists, GABAB agonists or corticoids.
Persistent cancer pain might be relieved by palliative radiation or neurodestructive surgical approaches. Administration of nonsteroid antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) is the most frequently used therapy for osteoarthritis in dogs.
Carprofen and other NSAID with a favorable cyclooxygenase-1: cyclooxygenase-2 ratio, are recommended by clinical studies.