Untreated pain slows recovery, increases stress hormones, and can prolong hospital stays. Multimodal pain management uses several approaches at once — each targeting a different part of the pain pathway — so we can use lower doses of each, get better relief, and reduce the side effects that come with single-drug approaches.

For surgical patients, this often starts before incision: pre-emptive analgesia and local nerve blocks placed in the operating room. For ICU patients, it means continuous-rate infusions (CRIs) titrated to the patient’s comfort level, adjusted hour by hour.

For chronic-pain patients (advanced osteoarthritis, post-trauma cases, palliative oncology), multimodal therapy means a tailored medication plan for home that combines NSAIDs, gabapentinoids, and adjuncts — balanced to your pet’s individual needs and side-effect profile.