Potential sources of neck and back pain in clinical conditions of dogs and cats: a review.

Pathological neck and back pain occurs in many medical conditions of dogs and cats. Pain may arise from a variety of structures including the intervertebral discs, facet joint capsules, dorsal root ganglia, vertebral ligaments, the vertebral periosteum, and the meninges. The source of this pain is dependent upon the type of disease process and its location within or surrounding the spinal column. Diseases can directly or indirectly stimulate pain sensors (nociceptors). Inflammatory diseases may hypersensitize these receptors or nociceptive pathways with inflammatory mediating substances such as serotonin, histamine and potassium. Diseases resulting in mechanical compression of nociceptors or nociceptive pathways may also result in neck or back pain. A thorough understanding of spinal pain occurring in dogs and cats will lead to more accurate diagnoses and treatments and may provide information regarding prognoses for various diseases. Evidence pointing to sources of spinal pain taken from scientific and clinical studies of a variety of species including humans is provided. Suspected or known sources of neck and back pain occurring in several clinical conditions of dogs and cats are discussed.