The answer is, apparently, yes. But of course, an animal can’t articulate their suffering, so we can only make assumptions based on their behavior. The reason I thought to ask came out of a conversation with my blog-buddy Thomas who writes on his site Super Facts. He mentioned that AI claimed the diagnosis of ‘migraine’ is 600 years old, and I quipped back that this was just the name, head pain itself is positively ancient (I’ve blogged about neanderthal migraines before here). It did make me wonder, however, if headaches are even more primal than that, going all the way back to the animals.
As the mother of two fur-babies I can attest to the healing power of pets and pet therapy, but I can honestly say I have never witnessed anything that looked like headache-behavior in either of my dogs. Sure, they’ve been unwell, with loss of appetite, nausea, lethargy, moodiness and some changes in their daily habits, but they usually resolve themselves or we go to the vet. I’ve never seen them put their paws over their squinted eyes to block out the light…
So – you know me – it was time to get googly.
The first article I found was from 2013 and titled “Migraine-like episodic pain behavior in a dog: can dogs suffer from migraines?” (here) by Plessas, Volk and Kenny. The article starts by reiterating migraine’s ancient history: “Migraine is not a new disease; conditions and clinical signs linked to migraines have been described in Babylonian writings dating back to 3000 bc. For thousands of years, little was known about this condition, which was treated with skepticism and superstition. The word migraine derives from the Greek hemikrania, suggesting that the pain is arising from one side of the skull.”
Things then start to get quickly uncomfortable (for me) – and reminded me of my post about the ethics of migraine medication and animal testing (here). The article (if I’m reading it correctly) suggests that animal experiments exist that suggest migraine pain has been induced in dogs, cats, rats, mice, and other animals.
The bulk of the paper discusses the case report of a single dog who was diagnosed with unusual clinical signs which resembled those of migraine in people. The dog was a 5-year-old female neutered Cocker Spaniel; let’s call her Migraine-Miggy, or Miggy for short (because writing “the dog” over and over sounds too impersonal).
The trials and tribulations of poor Miggy getting diagnosed sound A LOT like the experiences the average migraine-patient goes through in the hope of getting better.
Miggy presented with a history of unexplained episodes of strange behavior since she was 6 months old. Miggy would suddenly appear fearful and quiet, and would hide under furniture, and start making sounds as if she was experiencing pain. She would drop her head, avoid her humans, and seemed to dislike noise and light. Although she remained conscious and responsive throughout each event, she would refuse food or water. Occasionally, she would hyperventilate or vomit. The duration of each event could last up to 3 days, and she would be quiet for another 2 days afterwards. This used to happen once or twice a year, at first, then began to occur monthly. The owner of Miggy could not identify any specific triggers, and suggested the onset could happen any time, day or night.
Several veterinarians examined Miggy when she was sick, and none could find a reason for her behavior or source of her potential pain. A variety of treatment options were explored, including opioids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs… none of which helped. Miggy then had an MRI of her brain which found nothing abnormal. Other tests, including cerebrospinal fluid analysis, thoracic radiographs and abdominal ultrasonography also revealed everything to be within normal limits.
[UGH – I’m thinking of what poor Miggy went through… many of us who go through ‘unexplained’ chronic pain receive “all good” results via a process of elimination tests. If the doctor doesn’t support your concerns, then all these tests make you look like nothing but a cry-baby; it’s so unfair.]
In the end, the article notes that vets became suspicious that Miggy’s behavior might be related to a severe headache, and she was given paracetamol and other pain killers for 4 weeks, but still failed to get better. Finally, someone wondered about migraines, and a drug used for human migraine episodes was trialed, and Miggy improved. When she occasionally still got sick, it was only for a few hours, not days, and she no longer vocalized her distress. After a short rest she would be happy to go for walks, eat, and drink as normal. Soon, Miggy was getting sick less and less often and her owners believed she finally had a good quality of life.
The article then talks about human migraines to draw comparisons to Miggy’s story [which, I have to say, there are a lot], then talks some more about past animal tests on mice, pigs and dogs…
They end by suggesting researchers stay open to investigating migraines in dogs; take videos, keep a diary, have an open mind… maybe run more tests around the efficacy of human migraine treatments for dogs. It was a little unclear whether the aim was to improve scientific understanding for dogs, humans, or both… but it did leave me a feeling quite flat.
There was another couple of papers, but these were behind paywalls, and I decided I was too sad to keep researching. Thinking of all the Miggys out there who might be silently suffering a migraine is pretty grim.
Sigh.
For a much nicer spin on the “dog only knows” topic, head over to the website of artist Alison Friend (here) to see some of her paintings of cheeky pups being adorable while drinking bubble-tea or sneaking a piece of pizza under the table, all with plenty of my beloved side-eye going on!
Take care taking care of yourself and your pets,
Linda xx
PS – the you-rock-rock is still rocking where it was laid… I’ll let you know when it gets a move on!
The Mindful Migraine 
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