A Look at Natural Pain Relief Remedies for Dogs

Your dog looks to you for relief when pain arises, leaving you scrambling for the right solutions. A vet visit is always a great place to start, of course, but prescription medications can sometimes complicate matters further.

When that happens, you’re left looking for natural pain relief remedies from the vet or that you can do at home. Fortunately, there are many effective natural remedies you can try, although you may need to do a little trial and error to find the right solutions

So, the sooner you start, the better. To begin, simply use this guide to learn about the top pain relief remedies for dogs.

Effective Natural Pain Relief Remedies

Your vet can likely still help with your dog’s pain relief needs even if prescription medications aren’t the ideal solution. Many vets offer the following natural remedies to provide the proper level of care to dogs with painful health conditions. If not, they can refer you to a specialist who can help.

Herbal Medications

Herbal medications have long served as effective pain relief remedies, especially when dealing with pain and mobility issues caused by inflammation. Depending on the cause of your dog’s pain, you may want to use herbal medications with Boswellia or Devil’s Claw. Your dog may also benefit from using CBD oil formulated for dogs.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture helps relieve pain by bringing blood flow to the targeted area while simultaneously relaxing the muscle tissue. Dogs with arthritis and other conditions causing joint and muscle pain tend to benefit the most. The treatments can also help decrease symptoms caused by diabetes, kidney failure, and other serious diseases.  

Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy gets dogs moving without any excess strain on their joints. The exercise typically helps reduce their pain levels while improving both strength and flexibility. Over time, the muscle gains further decrease stress on the joints and make the pain even more manageable.  

Massage

Just like their human counterparts, dogs love a great massage. As with acupuncture, massage sessions help increase blood flow to the area to promote healing and reduce pain. Working the muscles by hand also reduces tension, which goes a long way in keeping pain at bay.

Laser Therapy

Laser therapy is a relatively new approach to decreasing inflammation and pain while helping the body heal naturally. Although it might sound intense, your dog will likely find it quite relaxing. The vet just has to run the deep-penetrating light over the painful areas to bring relief fast.  

If your vet does not offer natural remedies, you may need to find a holistic veterinarian instead. Just check with the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association for recommendations if needed.

How You Can Provide Pain Relief at Home

You can help relieve your dog’s pain even more by providing support at home with:

Quality Food

High-quality food can help improve your dog’s health and happiness by giving their body nutrients without any of the extra junk. For the best results, think about switching to a dog food made using insect protein.

Well known as a superfood, insect protein doesn’t trigger allergy symptoms like traditional pet food ingredients do. Plus, it helps improves digestive health by infusing the body with ample prebiotics and probiotics designed to create a healthier gut microbiome.   

Supplements

A high-quality food definitely provides all the right nutrients for the complete nutrition of your dog. But when it comes to relieving pain, you can go one step further with daily supplements.

Omega-3 fatty acids, for example, help reduce painful inflammation in the joints. And glucosamine and chondroitin both support the growth of cartilage cells to promote healing over time.

Cold Therapy

You can keep your dog comfortable with cold therapy. While following your vet’s recommendations, you just apply ice packs to the painful area for a set amount of time.

The icy cold temps constrict blood vessels to reduce inflammation and minimize pain levels. Heat therapy works in the opposite way, but it’s usually only performed under the direct supervision of a vet.

Weight Management

Excess weight can greatly increase pain caused by arthritis and other health conditions. So, by helping your dog stay active and eat healthy, your efforts effectively decrease their pain levels by leaps and bounds.

Start with high-quality dog food, like Good Grub kibble, and then split the amount recommended by your vet into three equal meals. After that, it’s just a matter of getting moving on a daily basis with walks, play, and hydrotherapy.

Remember to track your dog’s symptom types and severity as you try out each natural remedy. The data will help you understand what helps the most, so you can follow the perfect pain relief approach for your pup.