Have you noticed your dog limping, lagging behind on walks, having difficulty going up and down stairs, or walking on slick floors? These are common signs of dog arthritis, the progressive joint disease veterinarians refer to as canine osteoarthritis, or simply OA.
This disease is very common. In fact, roughly 40% of all adult dogs in the US have OA, and a large number of those are otherwise young, healthy animals. If it isn’t treated effectively, it can rapidly worsen over time, becoming extremely debilitating for your dog.
Often the first treatments your veterinarian may recommend after your dog is diagnosed with OA are daily pain relievers in the form of pills or chews. These medications work by blocking pain signals but they don’t effectively address the inflammation that’s damaging your dog’s joint. And, because disease progression in OA is inevitable, pain relievers that don’t adequately address inflammation ultimately reach a point where they are no longer effective. What’s more, because these drugs go through your dog’s whole body to treat pain, they are known to cause side effects, especially with long-term use, including stomach and liver damage.
Dog arthritis injections offer an alternative to oral medications
If your dog is not responding to daily pain relievers as well as your veterinarian would like, he or she may recommend treatment with dog arthritis injections. There are a number of different options available that work in different ways to treat dog arthritis pain.
Joint injections for dog arthritis include:
- Corticosteroids. These medications are commonly used to provide temporary pain relief, but they can’t regenerate damaged cartilage and can have potential side effects like cartilage deterioration and tendon weakening.
- Hyaluronic Acid (HA). HA is also known as viscosupplementation that is injected directly into the joint. HA injections work as a lubricant that can help cushion the joint, but they do nothing to address the inflammation that is causing the disease and their effectiveness can vary, providing limited relief for some patients.
- Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP). These injections work by delivering PRP to the affected joint(s). PRP contains growth factors that stimulate the body’s natural healing processes. However, the effectiveness of PRP can vary depending on the dog and how severe the arthritis is, and this treatment does not address the inflammation driving OA progression. Possible risks include bleeding, tissue damage, infection, and nerve injuries, and more research is needed to determine the long-term effect of these injections.
- Stem Cells. This approach involves injecting stem cells from the dog’s own bone marrow or fatty tissue into the affected joint(s) to spur the body’s natural healing processes. But, as with other treatments, stem cells do nothing to address the underlying inflammation of OA. Potential risks include immune reactions, tumor formation, and failure of the therapy to provide relief. More research is needed to fully understand the long-term effects of this treatment.
- Cushioning Gels. These injections are designed to mimic the function of joint cartilage by creating a shock-absorbing matrix that reinforces damaged tissue. However, these gels are not able to reduce the inflammation occurring inside the joint and they are known to cause side effects like discomfort and swelling, lethargy, and decreased appetite in some patients. It’s also important to note that no long-term studies have been done to show the effectiveness and safety of cushioning gels in dogs.
Subcutaneous (under the skin) injections:
- Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) Inhibitors. These monthly injections can help manage OA pain by blocking NGF, which reduces the dog’s ability to feel arthritis pain but do nothing to reduce the inflammation causing OA to progress. They are injected under the skin so they go through your dog’s entire body to help relieve OA symptoms. While common side effects include a lack of energy, stomach issues, and soreness or swelling at the injection site, other more serious side effects have been reported, involving balance, ability to stand, paralysis, loss of bladder control, excessive thirst, nervous system effects (ie, seizures, muscle weakness) and even death.
Intramuscular injections:
- Chondroprotective injections. This approach is given to help slow the breakdown of the cartilage that lines and protects the joint, although it is not known exactly how the treatment works. And, as with other options for dog arthritis, it does not address the underlying inflammation causing the disease. These drugs are given by multiple injections into the muscle over many weeks and months and go through your dog’s entire body, which can cause side effects such as vomiting and diarrhea, lack of energy, and loss of appetite.
Synovetin OA® is a completely different kind of dog arthritis injection.
Synovetin OA is not just a pain reliever. It acts on the driver of the disease itself—inflammation—not just symptoms to give your dog very long-lasting pain relief and the potential to delay further joint damage.
It’s not a drug, but a targeted treatment that is given as a simple, one-time, in-office joint injection. Once inside the joint, it goes to work, exactly where it’s needed to help restore joint health at any stage of arthritis but sooner is better.
And because Synovetin OA is targeted to the joint, it doesn’t spread throughout the entire body like medications do, which are known to cause both minor and serious side effects. You can rest assured that extensive published studies have demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of Synovetin OA. And real-world use in 1000s of dogs has shown that just 1 treatment provides up to a year of exceptionally safe relief for your dog.
Read more about how one simple treatment with Synovetin OA can give your dog up to one whole year of pain relief.
