Month of May is Osteoarthritis/ Joint Awareness Month

 Osteoarthritis

What is it?

A non-inflammatory degenerative joint disease causing progressive degeneration of the cartilage that covers the bones in joints.

Symptoms

• Behavior changes – cannot go up stairs very well, moving from a sitting to a standing position very well, weekend warrior syndrome, cannot lift leg to urinate anymore, lose balance, etc.

• Pain – the resulting discomfort from the bony changes in the joints and destruction of the cartilage

• Crepitation – grating or cracking sensation or sound from severe arthritic changes in a joint

• Hip Pain – pain that is present in the hips or lower back and can present as a hind limb limp or “bunny hop”

• Joint Pain – pain present in the other joints that can present as a limp or walking on three legs (elevating 1 leg off the ground)

• Atrophy – loss of muscle mass due to disuse of a limb from chronic pain

Treatments

• Plenty of exercise (swimming) and decrease weight if obese

• Diets : Purina JM or Hill’s Science Diet J/D

• Joint Supplements – (helps repair cartilage and increase synovial production(joint fluid)): glucosamine, chondriotin, Adequan

Pain medication : Rimadyl, Metacam, Previcox, Etogesic, etc.

Surgical : joint specific surgical alteration, for example total hip replacement