Mary Allen
… maybe it’s joint pain! Older dogs and cats in particular would rather make themselves comfortable in front of the stove than go outside when the weather is cold and wet. The reason is often pain with every movement, which worsens when it is cold. Read here about why winter often brings pain and how you can help your pet.
Why Does Joint Pain Get Worse When It’s Cold?
In the case of chronic joint diseases, the affected joints become unstable and the muscles tense in order to stabilize the joint from the outside as best as possible. It hurts, more when it’s cold than when it’s hot. The reason is that muscles are better supplied with blood when it is warm and do not tense up or cramp as easily.
Another assumption is that the synovial fluid also becomes more viscous in the cold. This could tear the lubricating film and the joint ends would rub directly against each other. This can also cause pain, especially in joints that are already arthritic and have damaged cartilage.
How Can I Help My Animal with Pain-Related Weather Sensitivity?
It’s understandable that your cat or dog would prefer to stay indoors when it’s cold when they’re in pain. However, such sluggishness contributes to aggravating the pain.
Why is that? Because the organism considers everything that is not needed to be superfluous. If joints are not moved much, the articular cartilage becomes thinner and thus more susceptible to damage from stress. The joints lose mobility and the muscles around them become weaker. As a result, it is less able to stabilize diseased joints, which are stressed unevenly, resulting in cartilage damage and pain – a vicious circle.
So what to do? Your animal should exercise every day, as much and as well as possible. Of course, there shouldn’t be any pain. This is not only required by ethics, but a pain when moving also leads to tension, more pain, and more incorrect stress on the joints, so it can actually worsen the arthrosis.
That’s why you should take your dog or cat to a veterinarian who can prescribe customized pain medication and give you advice on your pet’s daily exercise routine. You should administer the pain medication consistently over a long period of time, not only when the weather sensitivity is particularly bad. Physiotherapy and the feeding of joint-supporting nutrients can also do a lot to improve your pet’s quality of life and give it the joy of exercise again. Various scientific studies have proven this.