Arthritis

Arthritis – Is a chronic inflammatory condition within joints that causes pain. Treatment for arthritis is often multimodal and dependent on the individual patient. There is no “cure” for arthritis. Dogs don’t show pain as we would expect; oftentimes the signs are subtle, including decreased movement, slow to warm up, and hesitation getting up or down. If a dog is favoring a leg or limping, then they are painful. The goals of treatment are to slow the progression of the disease and reduce pain. When we do that, our pets will live a longer and happier life.

Treatments can be divided into different groups. These can be used individually or together. We have some patients who incorporate all of the groups.

1. Weight loss – This is critical for joint health. Not only is there less weight on a painful joint, but fat cells make hormones that increase inflammation. For more information on weight loss strategies and tips for your pet, please visit tippvet.com/weight
2.  Exercise – We recommend up to 1 hour of low impact exercise (walking/swimming) per day, this can greatly increase natural endorphins that act like pain relievers.
3. Primary Pain Relievers/Anti-inflammatories – We recommend either Librela injections once a month (this reduces pain and inflammation) (for more information visit: Librela.com) Librela doesn’t require any lab work monitoring or Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories – These medications help reduce inflammation and pain. These work best when given consistently, as it can help slow down progression of arthritis. The pain relief activates quickly, but the anti-inflammatory slowly builds. Options include Rimadyl (carprofen), Metacam (meloxicam), and Galliprant (grapiprant). Bloodwork must be monitored every 6 months on these medications.
4. Regenerative Medicine – These are interventions that aim to reduce the pain and inflammation and promote healing via the body’s natural processes. This group includes cold laser therapy, pulsed magnetic therapy, platelet rich plasma, and stem cell treatment. These interventions may actually reverse some of the arthritic changes, especially when started early.
5. Omega-3-fatty acids – We recommend at 18mg of EPA per pound of body weight per day, this is a natural anti-inflammatory. For more information, please visit tippvet.com/omega3
6. Joint Supplements – Supplements are a large group of products such as Glucosamine +/- Chondroitin provide building blocks for healthy joints and help repair joint wear/tear and injury. These typically work better as preventatives than treatments. Not all joint supplements are created equally; as supplements, they are not governed by the FDA. We recommend supplements that provide third party testing such as Dasuquin, Cosequin, Flexadin, Yumove.
7. Supplemental pain medications – These include nerve pain relievers, wind-up pain blockers, and central pain relievers (gabapentin, amantadine, amitriptyline). These do not work consistently enough, or they are not strong enough to use as a sole pain reliever, but they can aid primary pain relievers.

If you feel your pet is in pain, we recommend visiting tippvet.com/appointments to schedule an appointment with one of our highly experienced veterinarians to determine what treatments would be best for your pet.