This month, we are focusing our client education on Osteoarthritis, and ways to recognize this disease in order to help our senior pets enter their “Golden Years” more comfortably and gracefully! If you have a young pet, this may not seem like a topic to even consider at this time. However, it is good information to have, as some day, it is likely that your pet will experience these aging changes.
What is Osteoarthritis, “OA”, arthritis?
Arthritis is a complex condition involving inflammation of one or more joints. There are many causes of arthritis in pets. In most cases, the degree of arthritis is related to the age of the animal.
What causes arthritis?
Arthritis can be classified as primary arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis and secondary arthritis which occurs as a result of joint instability that leads to damage of the subchondral bone that line the joints. Secondary arthritis is the most common form diagnosed in veterinary patients. The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis (OA) which is also known as degenerative joint disease (DJD). Some common causes of secondary arthritis include hip dysplasia, obesity, cranial cruciate ligament rupture, and so forth.
Other causes include joint infection, often as the result of bites or following joint trauma and damage.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an immune mediated, erosive, inflammatory condition. Cartilage and bone are eroded within affected joints and the condition can progress to complete joint fixation (ankylosis). It may affect single joints or multiple joints may be involved (polyarthritis). In certain dog breeds Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) factors can be detected with blood tests. Other types of immune mediated arthritis can be non-erosive, such as arthritis that is associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosis (SLE). SLE is often accompanied by other clinical signs in addition to the arthritis.
Infective or septic arthritis can be caused by a variety of microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses and fungi. Septic arthritis normally only affects a single joint and the condition results in swelling, fever, heat and pain in the joint. With septic arthritis, your pet is likely to stop eating and become depressed.
