Arthritis Management

Degenerative arthritis can be a debilitating disease for dogs. Osteoarthritis can restrict movement, cause pain and discomfort for your pet.
There are ways to improve your pets quality of life living with this chronic disease process.

Cartrophen is an anti-inflammatory injection that acts to helps maintain joint health, including preserving joint cartilage. Initially treatment regime is four weekly injections then an assessment is made depending on the severity of your pets osteoarthritis to determine how often the treatment frequency leading continuing onwards. It is essential that your dog complete all 4 injections to ensure optimal benefit and modification of the disease process. 80% of pets respond quickly to the initial course with a reduction in lameness and pain and a subsequent increase in activity and well-being. After this time monthly booster injections are administered to preserve results.

After initial consultation from a vet, we can organise our vet nurse to administer injections at your home for your convenience.

There are other strategies you can adopt to improve your pets quality of life.

A lean body condition score is essential when managing arthritis symptoms as excess weight causes increased stress on inflamed joints. Our vets suggest Royal Canin Satiety prescribed dry food to assist in safe weight loss. If you pet meets optimal weight range for its breed and size we recommend Mobility diet from Royal Canin as it is comprised of tumeric extract, hydrolysed collagen and green tea polyphenols, nutrients known to support joint health and mobility.
Low impact, moderate exercise is important to be maintained. ‘Moderate’ exercise is subjective and will need to be discussed with your vet to determine appropriate activity levels for your dog. Exercises that support joints are hydrotherapy in pools, but not at the beach.

There are a variety of medications that can provide further comfort. The most trusted and commonly used being Loxicom, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) which relieves inflammation in joints. Other medications include opioids and nerve pain. Complimentary therapies that can provide benefits your pet include massage and acupuncture. Acupuncture is offered by our acupuncture veterinary practitioner at Supervets.

If you’d like to know more about arthritis management and how you can better your pets life living with this chronic disease see our blog.

Man and old Dog
Our Team
our benefits

More Information

What's the regime for cartophen injections?

It is dependent on your pets severity and how they respond to the medication.
This is generally a long-term medication as the disease is chronic in nature. On commencement one of our vets will provide a full assessment of you pet to determine severity, this will also include x-ray’s. Once this is determined we schedule 4x weekly injections which can be administered in clinic or at your house. The first injection we recommend you monitor your pet to ensure there is no reactions however subsequent can be provided by one of our experienced vet nurse either with your presence or we can come to your home if dog is accessible from the backyard and administer when you’re not home to provide convenience.

Once we establish your individual pets response to the first month worth of medication we will prescribe ongoing treatment regimes.

about services
our veterinarians that

Can help you

Our Team

Our 28 week old Bernese Mountain Dog found a 4cm x 5 cm bone at the park that got stuck in his oesophagus. We went straight to Supervets. They couldn’t push it through to his stomach for surgical removal so using an endoscope a team of 4 took 4 hours to very carefully pull it out. Supervets led by Dr Ray and Dr Anthony do an amazing job and the team focus on recovery and care afterwards is world class. Very highly recommend this 7 star Vet Surgery and its wonderful team.

Barbara and Michael Whitwell