Has your pet become less active, less playful, or is it tiring quickly on walks? These could be early signs of Arthritis. As the progression continues some signs become more serious and are sad to see:
Some animals may have periods of time without symptoms only to have the symptoms return the next time they get up. Cold and damp weather accompanied by aging are known to increase the symptoms. There is no reason for your pet to continue suffering with these ailments. We offers a unique formula that out-performs the competition by treating and relieving the pain with lasting affects all day.
When cartilage, which protects the bone and makes up the joint, is destroyed, it is called degenerative joint disease or osteoarthritis. This is a progressive disease that affects the weight-bearing joints such as hips, spine, knees and elbows.
About 25-30% of pets suffer with the same pain and debilitation as people. Normal stress on abnormal joints or abnormal stress on normal joints can result in cartilage destruction and changes in the bone. Normal stress on abnormal joint can result in hip dysplasia. Abnormal stress on normal joints can be from constant jumping of obstacles, stretching or tearing ligaments during strenuous exercise or an injury from a fall or accident. Deterioration occurs in the cartilage that protects the bone ends and they become rough instead of smooth as they should be. Cracks develop in the soft spots with progression of the disease. The exposed bone remodels and gets spurs while the cartilage frays. The exposed bone has nerves causing the pain and the spurs add to that pain. The cartilage is unable to repair itself.
There are primary and secondary joint diseases. Primary diseases have no known cause other than wear and tear. The causes of the secondary diseases are hip dysplasia, patella luxation or loose kneecap, osteochondrosis, trauma, and ruptured knee ligaments. Sometimes this can be prevented by surgical repair of the joint. The secondary causes are described in more detail in the following paragraphs.
The ball and socket joints are malformed in hip dysplasia. The ball and socket do not fit together properly causing serious complications such as chronic inflammation, calcium build up, muscle pain and surrounding tissue breakdown. The larger breeds such as Labradors, Golden Retrievers, St. Bernard's, Great Pyrenees, Siberian husky, and German Shepherds are most at risk, but even smaller dogs are at risk. A common cat breed that is prone to hip dysplasia is a Himalayan.
The loose knee cap or dislocated kneecap occurs when the leg bones are poorly formed. This causes the kneecap to move in and out of normal position sounding like a pop.
Poor breeding and/or improper diet result in cartilage deterioration accompanied by tissue inflammation and pain. This is called osteochondrosis.
Large breed dogs are known to hereditarily have elbow dysplasia. The malformed bones results in painful bone chips. The same occurs in knee dysplasia.
Dislocation of the knee can occur when the ligaments are torn causing instability. This is usually a result of poor breeding and causes inflammation.
Bone spurs can result from hypertrophic arthritis causing a lot of pain.
The cause of shoulder degeneration is not clear because it could be an unstable joint, osteochondrosis, trauma or a combination.
Infection or underlying immune diseases cause inflammatory joint disease when large amounts of protein, white blood cells and fluid enter the joint. With this, there is usually a systemic illness such as a fever, anorexia and stiffness all over. Arthritis that is caused by infection can be due to bacteria, fungal infection, or a tick born disease such as Lyme disease. Arthritis that is caused by underlying immune diseases results from a weakened immune system which may be hereditary. For instance, dogs sometimes develop a deforming type of immune arthritis called rheumatoid arthritis. If treated improperly this type of arthritis can develop into a dangerous infection.
