Treatment of Pain in Ferrets

Abstract

Ferrets often require pain management as part of comprehensive veterinary care. Recognition and objective quantification of pain, such as the ferret grimace scale, are the first steps of an analgesic plan. As in other species, a multimodal approach to pain management is preferred, which includes combining analgesic drugs of multiple classes and/or techniques to affect different areas of the pain pathway. This article reviews the current published literature on analgesic medications in domestic ferrets, including specific drugs, doses, dosing intervals, and routes of administration.

Keywords: Analgesia; Ferret; Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; Opioids.