Your dog seems less energetic than before, and your vet has mentioned osteoarthritis. They likely emphasized the importance of maintaining a healthy weight, staying physically active, and supplementing your pet’s diet with chondroprotectors or essential fatty acids. At the time of diagnosis, your dog may have been experiencing pain, so your vet almost certainly prescribed short-term pain relief. Now, you’re probably wondering how your pet’s condition will evolve and what signs to watch for.
It’s important to remember that osteoarthritis is an irreversible condition that progresses through painful flare-ups. The goal of treatment is therefore to slow its progression and preserve your pet’s quality of life and comfort by minimizing the effects of cartilage degeneration. To help space out these painful episodes as much as possible, you’ll need to closely monitor your dog’s behavior on a daily basis. Is he eating normally? Does he seem to struggle when getting up, jumping into the car, or climbing stairs? Is he limping? Does he lick a specific area (particularly the joint affected by osteoarthritis)? Does he appear anxious, sad, or fearful? Has he become more irritable?
To keep your pet healthy, we recommend moderate daily exercise. Ideally, take your pet for two 30-minute walks each day. Don’t hesitate to log the duration of your outings and the routes taken in a notebook. Even simpler, use your smartphone—there are apps designed specifically to track your walks.
Along with tracking the duration and intensity of your walks, it’s also helpful to add some extra details, such as:
- Did you keep the dog on the lead the entire walk? If so, did he pull or stay calm? If not, did he run off? This should reflect his usual behavior.
- Who ended the activity?
- For the same level of exertion, do you feel he had more trouble recovering after this session?
Schedule regular check-ups with your vet, even if there’s no painful flare-up. Low-grade inflammation is always present, even if it doesn’t necessarily cause discomfort. This is why omega-3 essential fatty acids can be used continuously: they help modulate inflammation and reduce inflammatory episodes. Similarly, it’s always better not to let pain take hold, as it becomes harder to manage once it does. To address this, the CAPdouleur network has developed an app of the same name, CAPdouleur CSOM, which allows pet owners and their vets to share pain assessments. If your vet is part of the CAPdouleur network and deems it necessary, they may suggest using this tool. You can then collaborate to create the most suitable assessment scale for your four-legged companion. With this app, you can track your pet’s pain score daily in their familiar surroundings. The scores sync automatically and are sent to your vet, enabling prompt adjustments to the treatment plan.
You can already download the CAPdouleur app and complete the pain assessment questionnaire, which is available free of charge. This will give you an initial idea of whether your dog may be in pain—a useful insight to share with your vet.
