IT’S A VET’S LIFE! August 2022

Osteoarthritis can’t be cured, but the good news is that there are many innovations when it comes to how we manage and treat it, says Vicky Payne.

ABOUT VICKY Holistic vet Vicky Payne BVetMed MRCVS is based in East Sussex, and qualified from the Royal Veterinary College in 2001. She uses a range of complementary therapies alongside conventional medicine and surgery.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common painful conditions that we see in general practice. More than 60 per cent of dogs over the age of eight have arthritis.

Osteoarthritis is a complex disease, which starts with the degeneration of tissues within the joint. This is usually due to wear and tear, but can develop earlier than expected due to deformities in the joint, overuse of a limb, or congenital defects in connective tissues. Joint pain then causes the dog to use the affected limb less, which leads to muscle loss and weakness in the tendons and ligaments. Moving in a different way to compensate for the joint pain causes pain in other areas of the body, and something called ‘pain wind-up’ can happen where the brain magnifies how much pain is felt. Osteoarthritis is progressive and can’t be cured. How depressing! But there are many ways that arthritic pets can be helped and new innovations are becoming available all the time.