How To Tell If Your Dog Has Arthritis

When dogs reach old age, they suffer a lot of pain, just as we do. One is arthritis, which can also affect animals that are overweight. Let’s see below what it consists of, how it affects our dog and how to identify arthritis in our pet. 

What is canine arthritis?

Author: LuAnn Snowder Photography

Canine arthritis is very similar to human arthritis. It is a degenerative joint disease and someone is considered to have arthritis when one or more joints are affected. It causes joint inflammation or degeneration and produces stiffness, lameness and pain. This will cause the animal’s movement to be limited.

It can affect any dog, regardless of age.

However, the most normal is that it occurs in dogs:

• Over 8 years old. It is considered that after 8 years the dog has entered old age. With it, diseases caused by age appear. Among them, arthritis. It is common that, with the passage of time and use, the joints wear out and suffer, and it is then that they present degeneration and inflammation.
• Large. Large dogs support a lot of weight on their joints throughout their lives, which favors their wear and the onset of arthritis.
• In addition to these cases,  there are two breeds prone to arthritis: the Labrador retriever and the German shepherd. Animals that have had joint surgery can also suffer from arthritis.

How to tell if your dog has arthritis

Once we know what arthritis is and the dogs most likely to develop it, the question we can ask is, how do I know if my dog ​​has arthritis, as it can affect any animal.

The most common symptoms of arthritis are as follows:

• Limp. If your dog is walking in a different way, limping a little, it is likely that he is experiencing pain in one of his joints. Make sure the lameness is not caused by something that has jabbed, jabbed or hit the animal. After ruling out these options, take your dog to a veterinarian to indicate the stage of arthritis and treatment to follow.
• If your dog has  stiffness  when he wakes up, it could be a symptom of arthritis. Depending on the severity of the disease, the level of stiffness will be higher or lower.
• Chronic pain. If you notice that your dog feels pain when walking and this makes his posture awkward, there is no doubt that he has arthritis. To detect this, we must observe and be aware of our animal’s behavior. This pain will limit your movement and decrease the intensity of the exercise in addition to your steps.

Other cases of arthritis

1. Feel your animal. If you feel fairly firmly but carefully so as not to hurt him, and find that he complains when you touch some joints, your dog is very likely to have arthritis.
2. Discouragement. The pain can make your pet not want to do anything and seem more fallen and even depressed. Your body, like that of human beings, defends itself from what is bad. The animal associates walking with pain and thus prefers not to move unless extremely necessary.
3. Loss of appetite. This is a common symptom in any disease that causes pain. That’s what we usually say: “rolling in the stomach wardes off hunger,” and that’s exactly what happens to dogs.
4. Take your dog to the vet  if you notice any of these symptoms, as arthritis, although not curable, can be treated to make it less painful.