Is My Cat in Pain? | The FMPI
Link: https://www.eliteveterinarycare.com/blog/is-my-cat-in-pain-the-fmpi
Have you suspected your cat of being in chronic pain? You think there might be something wrong, but you’re not entirely sure. Did you ever want to ask your cat how much pain they’re in? Your cat in pain may be helped by the aid of an in-home analysis tool that you can administer yourself!
An Instrument for Helping Your Cat in Pain | The Feline Muscoloskeletal Pain Index
There are 80 million cats in the US and almost half suffer from long-term, degenerative osteoarthritis (OA) or related neuromuscular and orthopedic conditions. These conditions cause chronic and debilitating pain in cats. The Feline Musculosketal Pain Index (FMPI) is a pain-scoring tool in the form of a questionnaire that assesses the discomfort associated with chronic musculoskeletal disorder. It designed to measure the degree to which a cat suffers from pain associated with one of these conditions.
The FMPI was developed at the Comparative Pain Research and Education Centre at the North Carolina State University (NCSU) College of Veterinary Medicine. The goal is to provide legitimate mechanisms for owners and vets to assess an animal’s pain, physical function, and quality of life. The FMPI was specifically crafted to quantify pain in cats when applied by an observer (owner or vet). The tools are design to measure one or more impacts of pain:
Pain - adverse sensory and emotional experience
Mobility - the quality of moving freely
Activity - the ability to perform specific activities
Affective Effects - mood, feelings, and behavior
Cognitive Function
During the course of treatment for the cat, owners and veterinarians can use the FMPI to:
Measure the cat’s initial, baseline condition
Create an initial treatment strategy based upon results
Monitor the cat’s progress
Weigh the effects of various treatments and prescriptions
Instructions for Using the FMPI
In order to begin the questionnaire, review and implement the following instructions every time you administer an FMPI. For a downloadable and online version of the FMPI, please register at painfreecats.org.
Begin by answering each question. Fill in the appropriate circle that applies in each instance. If you come across a question that does not apply, fill in the circle to the far right.
Return the questionnaire to the administrator once completed (if completing online, the administrator is painfreecats.org – click submit at the end of the questionnaire to return it)
When calculating your score, a rating of 0-4 is assigned to each question 1-17. Reduce the total possible score by 4 for each question answered “not applicable.” Questions 18-21 are scored so that no = 0 and yes = 1.
The total FMPI score is the sum of scores across all questions. The total possible score ranges from 0-72. Higher totals indicate more impairment. Recommendations on analysis will be available once field testing is completed for version 11.
For more information and answers to frequently asked questions, please visit https://painfreecats.org/the-fmpi/.