RE: Elbow arthritis in spaniel

James Dunne — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 20:51:06 GMT

Hi Karen

It would be worth taking her to physiotherapy if you haven't done so already. These dogs also offload to other joints and their spine and may have muscle spasm, so sometimes we'll also use methocarbamol to relax them - it doesn't help all of them and is used on a case-by-case basis. If she's prone to injuring herself because she likes exercise, consider something like DogLeggs elbow supports when she goes for a walk - it's a bit like a person using elbow supports for tennis elbow I guess. Injecting things into the joint can help. Arthrimid is favoured as a lubricant but should be injected under conditions of strict asepsis. If you want to inject hyaluronate, volume is about 0.5-1ml per joint. Apart from lubricant, you could trial a biology-altering substance like PRP or Mesenchymal Stem Cells for longer term pain relief (if they work for your dog). As Bob has mentioned, Tramadol works for some patients, but research has shown on many canine patients, it has no effect on osteoarthritis pain and the effect when it does work can be short-lived. It is also addictive. Triamcinolone can be used for local anti-inflammatory action but you need to stop NSAID for a few weeks afterwards. Another strategy would be dividing the carprofen dose to twice daily and another would be to change from a non-coxib to a coxib NSAID or change within non-coxibs (from carprofen to meloxicam for instance). Some dogs with unicompartmental elbow OA are suitable for unicompartmental arthroplasty (CUE) and while I do not do this surgery, it is apparently a lot more successful than total elbow replacement, which seems to be a tough procedure on surgeon/patient/owner and high complication rates. I'm presuming as well that her weight is okay...hope all of that is of some help! There are specialists in anaesthesia offering pain clinics now as well - not sure where you practice, but you could also seek one of them out to get the ball rolling.

RE: Elbow arthritis in spaniel

Bob Russell — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 15:53:05 GMT

We have a lab with the worst imaginable elbows. He was put on tramadol (when it was in vogue) and still is. Does seem to give some benefit according to the owner.