Studies were primarily related to the assessment of pain in relation to surgical procedures , and no clear distinction was made concerning the onset of acute and chronic pain .
The metrics used within the tools appeared to focus primarily on the sensory aspect of pain , with no study clearly discriminating between the sensory and affective components of pain .
Objectives The objectives were to review systematic ally the range of assessment tools used in cats to detect the behavioural expression of pain and the evidence of their quality ; and to examine behavioural metrics ( considering both the sensory and affective domains ) used to assess pain .
Characterization of osteoarthritis in cats and meloxicam efficacy using objective chronic pain evaluation tools.
This study aim ed to characterize osteoarthritis (OA)-related chronic pain and disability in experimental cats with naturally occurring OA .  Peak vertical ground reaction force ( PVF ) , accelerometer-based motor activity ( MA ) and the von Frey anesthesiometer-induced paw withdrawal threshold were used to define OA and to test the efficacy of meloxicam . A diagnosis of OA was based on radiographic and orthopedic examinations . Cats with OA ( n=39 ) and classified as non-OA ( n=6 ) were used to assess the reliability and sensitivity of the parameters to assess OA over 3weeks while being administered placebo medication . A r and omised parallel design study was then used to investigate the effects on OA of daily oral meloxicam treatment for 4weeks at different dose rates ( 0.025mg/kg , n=10mg/kg ; 0.04mg/kg , n=10 ; 0.05mg/kg , n=9 ) , compared to cats administered a placebo ( n=10 ) . The test-retest repeatability for each tool was good ( intra-class correlation coefficient ⩾0.6 ) . The PVF and the von Frey anesthesiometer-induced paw withdrawal threshold discriminated OA ( P<0.05 ) . Meloxicam did not add to the PVF improvement observed in placebo-treated cats during the treatment period ( adj-P⩽0.01 ) . The 0.025 and the 0.05mg/kg meloxicam-treated cats experienced a higher night-time ( 17:00 - 06:58h ) MA intensity during the treatment period compared to the placebo period ( adj-P=0.04 , and 0.02 , respectively ) and this effect was not observed in the placebo group . The high allodynia rate observed in the 0.04mg/kg meloxicam-treated group may explain the lower responsiveness to the drug . The von Frey anesthesiometer-induced paw withdrawal threshold demonstrated no responsiveness to meloxicam . The results from this study indicated that daily oral meloxicam administration for 4weeks provided pain relief according to night-time MA
Studies were primarily related to the assessment of pain in relation to surgical procedures , and no clear distinction was made concerning the onset of acute and chronic pain .
The metrics used within the tools appeared to focus primarily on the sensory aspect of pain , with no study clearly discriminating between the sensory and affective components of pain .
Objectives The objectives were to review systematic ally the range of assessment tools used in cats to detect the behavioural expression of pain and the evidence of their quality ; and to examine behavioural metrics ( considering both the sensory and affective domains ) used to assess pain .